T Qatar March-April 2013 Issue 18 by Oryx Group of Magazines

Editor’s Letter

Publisher & Editor-In-Chief

Yousuf Jassem Al Darwish Chief Executive

Sandeep Sehgal Executive Vice President

Welcome TO CHANGE

With spring comes renewal, and that is particularly true for T magazine. T has redesigned the magazine, most of its features and even its logo to create a more compelling and distinctive experience for its readers. Talking to the regional readers about this change is the new T Editor In Chief, Deborah Needleman.

Alpana Roy

Vice President

Ravi Raman

Editorial Editor

Sindhu Nair Senior Correspondents

Rory Coen Ezdihar Ibrahim Ali Abigail Mathias

art Senior Art Director

Venkat Reddy

Deputy Art Director

Hanan Abu Saiam

Assistant Art Director

Ayush Indrajith

Senior Graphic Designer

Maheshwar Reddy

Photography

Rob Altamirano

Marketing and Sales Senior Manager – Marketing

Zulfikar Jiffry

Assistant Managers – Marketing

Chaturka Karandana Thomas Jose

T is a magazine about style in all its dimensions. As such, it aspires not merely to reflect the times we live in, but to illuminate cultural shifts in a thought-provoking and exciting way. Style, to us, encompasses all the elements of life that aren’t absolutely necessary, but without which life would be less charmed, less beautiful and certainly not as fun. This women’s fashion issue highlights the values of elegance and simplicity in a moment when commotion has become the accepted norm. We have an exclusive interview with Lee Radziwill, who, after living in grand houses across America and Europe, now spends much of her time in her Paris flat, the smallest of any place she’s ever lived, and her favorite by far. At 79, Radziwill is as glamorous as she has ever been, and she has pared back life to the essential luxuries that have the most meaning: her apartment is sparingly decorated with treasured objects; her highly edited wardrobe consists of only the looks she loves best — she wears the same earrings and ring every day; and though these days she eschews the social whirl, she’s always willing to travel to a far-flung place with friends at a moment’s notice. Because remaining true to oneself now feels so uniquely renegade, Radziwill is as cool to kids who don’t know her history as to those for whom she has been a lifelong icon. To me she is the perfect cover subject for the new T: the personification of true style. I am deeply attracted to people who play by their own rules, going about their work in a way that should inspire the rest of us. The fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa has

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run his studio for the last 34 years in a way that allows him total control over his life. He is so prodigiously talented that he hasn’t had to operate within the usual dictates of his industry: he rarely has fashion shows, makes appearances or gives interviews; his clothes are delivered to stores when he thinks they’re ready; and he prepares big daily lunches for staff and friends. All this, and his clothes, perfectly stitched and without unnecessary ornamentation, are among the most coveted of any living designer. They are the definition of elegant and simple, which is no easy task. Achieving simplicity and clarity is not about one’s age (aren’t we post-age already?), but it takes discipline to know what you want and how to make it happen, as you’ll see with the designers behind Proenza Schouler, who are very much a part of New York’s glittery downtown scene but who do their most creative work on their farm tucked away in the Berkshires. We also introduce you to Jonathan Anderson, a rising designer forging ahead of the very precocious pack of young British designers. In the following pages, you’ll also find FrançoisHenri Pinault, a man who holds the keys to the future of fashion; the best accessories of the season; and much more. It goes without saying that we’ve updated the magazine to please you. We sincerely hope it will. Deborah Needleman Editor In Chief new york city

Media Consultants

Hassan Rekkab Lydia Youssef

Marketing Research & Support Executive

Kanwal Baluch

Accountant Pratap Chandran Sr. Distribution Executive

Bikram Shrestha

Distribution Support

Arjun Timilsina Bhimal Rai Basanta P

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P.O. Box 3272; Doha-Qatar Tel: (+974) 44672139, 44550983, 44671173, 44667584 Fax: (+974) 44550982 Email: tqatar@omsqatar.com website: www.omsqatar.com

Issue 2, 2013

The Real Lee Radziwill

While she has long captivated the public as one of Truman Capote’s swans, the sister of Jackie Kennedy and a European princess, not one of those labels begins to capture the true woman. The inimitable Radziwill offers a rare, personal glimpse into her world. By Nicky Haslam. Photographs by François Halard. Styled by Carolina Irving

The Man Behind the Curtain

After working in the lower rungs of his father’s company, the PPR chief François-Henri Pinault was handed the keys to an uncertain kingdom. But he’s pulled off the rare feat of besting the patriarch and creating a fashion empire. By Joshua Levine. Photograph by Hannah Starkey

Art of Perfection

The Rite of Spring

In the hands of Azzedine Alaïa, a dress is so much more than stitched fabric. It’s an exaltation of the female form. Over lunch in Paris, fashion’s ultimate independent comes to terms with his singular legacy. By Dana Thomas. Photographs by Karim Sadli. Styled by Joe McKenna

There’s a dramatic formality to the season’s symphony of black and white fashion. Photographs by Solve Sundsbo. Styled by Katie Grand 108

102

Clockwise from right: Suvi Koponen in Alaïa jacket, QR 12,750, dress, QR16,340, and shoes, price on request. Stella Tennant in a Giles dress, price on request; Miu Miu stole, price on request; Prada gloves, QR 2,185; and Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière tiara, QR 1,230; installation at Design Days Dubai

Cover: Photographed by Mario Sorrenti. Styled by Anastasia Barbieri. Lee Radziwill wears a Giambattista Valli dress and her own jewelry.

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Table of Contents

Lookout Editor’s Letter 16 Behind the T 24

Sign of the Times

Lookout Qatar

On the Verge

Runway Report

First came the fashion editors, dressed as over-the-top Zoolanders. Then came photographers, blogging about exaggerated street style. Now, photographers peacock for bloggers, who have replaced fashion editors, who are repositioning themselves as global brands. It’s dizzying enough to make even the most seasoned critic call a timeout. By Suzy Menkes

Lebanese photographer Maher Attar is on a “Lomo Mission”.

The designer behind J. W. Anderson has leapfrogged to the forefront of London’s fashion scene by challenging the notions of masculine and feminine dressing, aligning himself with industry powerhouses and keeping his eye on the international prize. By Penny Martin. Photograph by Ronald Dick

Personal style isn’t always about effortlessly mixing color and texture. Sometimes it’s about choosing one strong pattern and sticking with it. Photographs by Brea Souders

The luxury business of lifestyle consumerism is slowly diversifing to hotels with numerous brands leading the way. 54

35 Take Two

Chelsea Handler and Oscar de la Renta sound off on Nike’s new featherweight sneaker, the perfect egg recipe, 2013’s hottest color and more. 36

This and That

The return of the black pump; surf’s up with Stella McCartney; the Hermès perfumer with a nose for prose. 28

In Store

With a pair of boutiques that offer cutting-edge Western fashion and design, Cecilia Morelli Parikh is betting that the India’s fashionable set will embrace understatement. By Pilar Viladas. Photographs by Thibault Montamat

Anderson: Ronald Dick; Morelli parikh: Thibault montamat

Clockwise from above: an illustration by Konstantin Kakanias; the designer behind J. W. Anderson; Cecilia Morelli Parikh at her store in Mumbai, India.

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Table of Contents

Quality

Arena

Objects

The Moment

By Design

Some of fashion’s most iconic and feminine staples — demure heels, delicate pearls, evening clutches — have been tweaked for a sexy twist. Photographs by Elena Redina

Ladylike elegance feels provocatively alluring right now. Photographs by Julia Hetta. Styled by Hannes Hetta

Dubai’s own couturier Michael Cinco reveals why the Middle East luxury fashion cognoscenti continues to intrigue him. By Priyanka Pradhan

Travel Diary

On Beauty

Achieving the new natural look requires a specific arsenal of nearly-there makeup. A primer on minimalism. By Daphne Merkin

Qatar might be racing to modernity but the age old sport of camel racing prevails. 84

Document

Catherine Opie shoots Elizabeth Taylor’s closet. 116

68 In Fashion

Le-tan: François coquerel; Proenza schouler: Sean Donnola; Mérida: Paul Costello

A discreet pop of tomato red, tangerine or pale blush gives everyday monochromatic dressing a graphic lift. Photographs by Benjamin Alexander Huseby. Styled by Vanessa Traina 70

Clockwise from top left: Models backstage at Balmain; a model shows off Michael Cinco design; Camel racing is still an active sport in Qatar.

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A CIRCLE OF FRIENDS Clockwise from left: Peter Beard; Nicky Haslam; Giambattista Valli; Lee Radziwill with her youngest pal, Sofia Coppola’s daughter; Sofia Coppola.

Nicky Haslam, Giambattista Valli, Sofia Coppola and Peter Beard Much has been written about the life of Lee Radziwill, including her own autobiographical photo book, ‘‘Happy Times’’ (Assouline, 2001). And yet Radziwill herself rarely speaks to the press. In an exclusive interview for T (Page 88), Radziwill spent some quality time

opening up to her friend of 40 years, the interior designer, author and now singer (his album ‘‘Midnight Matinée’’ is forthcoming) Nicky Haslam, about her life, loves and famous family. A few other intimates also share their views on the iconic Radziwill: the filmmaker Sofia Coppola discusses Radziwill’s timeless elegance and poise; the photographer Peter Beard, who was her lover in the 1970s, recalls her adventurous spirit; and the designer Giambattista Valli confesses to his long-held obsession with the princess.

Above: Azzedine Alaïa, notorious animal lover. Left: Joe McKenna.

Joe McKenna The master designer Azzedine Alaïa plays by his own rules, including hand-selecting which pieces can be featured in which magazines, and how. But when T’s fashion director at large told Alaïa we wanted to feature him, he knew his creations would be given the treatment they deserve in the hands of this equally masterful stylist (‘‘Art of Perfection,’’ Page 88). Beginning with this issue, McKenna brings his intelligent and fashion-forward eye to our pages.

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Haslam: Jude Edginton; Beard: Peter Beard Studio/Pirelli; Valli: Kate Barry; Coppola: Andrew Durham; Radziwill: Sofia Coppola; M c Kenna: Bruce Weber.

Behind the T

Russian doll The street-style magnet Ulyana Sergeenko, who often changes outfits multiple times a day, twirls for the cameras during Paris’s fashion week last September.

Sign of the Times

Adam Katz Sinding/le 21éme

The Circus of Fashion First came the fashion editors, dressed as over-the-top Zoolanders. Then came photographers, blogging about exaggerated street style. Now, photographers peacock for bloggers, who have replaced fashion editors, who are repositioning themselves as global brands. It’s dizzying enough to make even the most seasoned critic call a timeout. By SUZY MENKES

Issue 18, 2013

Lookout

Sign of the Times

Furry friends Above: photographers in the Tuileries in Paris. Below: Bryanboy, a blogger, in Maison Martin Margiela headwear.

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Big bird The Vogue Japan editor-at-large Anna Dello Russo in an Alexander McQueen dress and sunglasses.

from Top: Kamel Lahmadi/Style and the City; marcy swingle/gastrochic; Avenue Magazine.

were once described as ‘‘black crows’’ — us fashion folk gathered outside an abandoned, crumbling downtown building in a uniform of Comme des Garçons or Yohji Yamamoto. ‘‘Whose funeral is it?’’ passers-by would whisper with a mix of hushed caring and ghoulish inquiry, as we lined up for the hip, underground presentations back in the 1990s. Today, the people outside fashion shows are more like peacocks than crows. They pose and preen, in their multipatterned dresses, spidery legs balanced on club-sandwich platform shoes, or in thigh-high boots under sculptured coats blooming with flat flowers. There is likely to be a public stir when a group of young Japanese women spot their idol on parade: the Italian clothes peg Anna Dello Russo. Tall, slim, with a toned and tanned body, the designer and fashion editor is a walking display for designer goods: The wider the belt, the shorter and puffier the skirt, the more outré the shoes, the better. The crowd around her tweets madly: Who is she wearing? Has she changed her outfit since the last show? When will she wear her own H&M collection? Who gave her those mile-high shoes?! The fuss around the shows now seems as important as what goes on inside the carefully guarded tents. It is as difficult to get in as it always was, when passionate fashion devotees used to appear stealthily from every corner hoping to sneak in to a Jean Paul Gaultier collection in the 1980s. But the difference is that now the action is outside the show, as a figure in a velvet shoulder cape and shorts struts his stuff, competing for attention with a woman in a bigsleeved blouse and supertight pants. You can hardly get up the steps at Lincoln Center, in New York, or walk along the Tuileries Garden path in Paris because of all the photographers snapping at the poseurs. Cameras point as wildly at their prey as those original paparazzi in Fellini’s ‘‘La Dolce Vita.’’ But now subjects are ready and willing to be objects, not so much hunted down by the paparazzi as gagging for their attention. Ah, fame! Or, more accurately in the fashion world, the celebrity circus of people who are famous for being famous. They are known mainly by their Facebook pages, their blogs and the fact that the street photographer Scott Schuman has immortalized them on his Sartorialist Web site. This photographer of ‘‘real people’’ has spawned legions of imitators, just as the editors who dress for attention are now challenged by bloggers who dress for attention. Having lived through the era of punk and those underground clubs in London’s East End, where the individuality and imagination of the outfits were fascinating, I can’t help feeling how different things were when cool kids loved to dress up for one another — or maybe just for themselves. There is a genuine difference between the stylish and the showoffs — and that is the current dilemma. If fashion is for everyone, is it fashion? The answer goes far beyond the collections and relates to the speed of fast fashion. There is no longer a time gap between when a small segment of fashion-conscious people pick up a trend and when it is all over the sidewalks. Now that women and men (think of the über-stylish Filipino blogger Bryanboy, whose real name is Bryan Grey Yambao) are used to promote the brands that have been wily enough to align

Photo ready The All the Pretty Birds blogger Tamu McPherson dressed to the nines in a Jil Sander skirt and Balenciaga shoes.

The opposite of look-at-me fashion: leave it to the French to master understated chic.

Keeping it simple From top: Vogue Paris’s Emmanuelle Alt; French Vanity Fair’s Virginie Mouzat; Interview’s Ludivine Poiblanc.

Issue 18, 2013

from top: Stefania Yarhi/Textstyles; kessler Studio; Sarah Aubel. team peter stigter; Marcy swingle/gastrochic.

Girl power The streetstyle gaggle, from left: Elena Perminova, Michelle Harper, Natalie Joos, Miroslava Duma, Anya Ziourova, Anna Dello Russo, Giovanna Battaglia.

themselves with people power, even those with so-called street style have lost their individuality. Smartphones are so fabulous in so many ways that it seems daft to be nostalgic about the days when an image did not go round the world in a nanosecond. In the mid-1990s, when I stopped having to run from the shows to the film developing lab and first saw digital images, I blessed technology and was convinced that my working life was changing for the better. I had no inkling of the role that images would play, pitting fashion’s professionals — looking at shows for their own purposes of buying or reporting — against an online judge and jury. While fashion pros tend to have personal agendas related to their work, bloggers start a critical conversation that can spread virally. Many of these changes have been exhilarating. It is great to see the commentaries from smart bloggers — especially those in countries like China or Russia, where there was, in the past, little possibility of sharing fashion thoughts and dreams — although I am leery about the idea that anyone can be a critic, passing judgment after seeing a show (from the front only and in distorted color) on Style.com or NowFashion. But two things have worked to turn fashion shows into a zoo: the cattle market of showoff people waiting to be chosen or rejected by the photographers, and the way that smart brands, in an attempt to claw back control lost to multimedia, have come in on the act. Marc Jacobs was the first designer to sense the power of multimedia. When he named a bag after Bryanboy in 2008, he made the blogger’s name, and turned on an apparently unending shower of designer gifts, which are warmly welcomed at bryanboy.com. Many bloggers are — or were — perceptive and succinct in their comments. But with the aim now to receive trophy gifts and paid-for trips to the next round of shows, only the rarest of bloggers could be seen as a critic in its original meaning of a visual and cultural arbiter. Adhering to the time-honored journalistic rule that reporters don’t take gifts (read: bribes), I am stunned at the open way bloggers announce which designer has given them what. There is something ridiculous about the selfaggrandizement of some online arbiters who go against the mantra that I was taught in my earliest days as a fashion journalist: ‘‘It isn’t good because you like it; you like it because it’s good.’’ Slim chance of that idea catching on among the fashion bloggers. Whether it is the sharp Susie Bubble or the bright Tavi Gevinson, judging fashion has become all about me: Look at me wearing the dress! Look at these shoes I have found! Look at me loving this outfit in 15 different images! Fashion has to some extent become mob rule — or, at least, a survival of the most popular in a melee of crowdsourcing. The original ‘‘Project Runway,’’ a television show that chose participants with at least a basic knowledge of fashion, has been followed worldwide by ‘‘American Idol’’– style initiatives, in which a public vote selects the fashion winner. Who needs to graduate from Central Saint Martins in London or New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology when a homemade outfit can go viral on YouTube with millions of hits? Playing King Canute and trying to hold back the wave of digital fashion stuff is doomed for failure. But something has been lost in a world where the survival of the gaudiest is a new kind of dress parade. Perhaps the perfect answer would be to let the public preening go on out front, while the show moves, stealthily, to a different and secret venue, with the audience just a group of dedicated pros — dressed head to toe in black, of course.

Lookout

This and That

This and That A Cultural Compendium

The Cat’s Meow Following in the footsteps of Manolo Blahnik’s recent revival, the classic pointy-toe black heel is back.

Miu Miu, QR 2,550. Louis Vuitton, QR 4,475. Giorgio Armani, QR 2,180. Dior, QR 3,410

illustrations by konstantin kakanias

Dinosaur Bones Monique Péan — jewelry designer and natural history fetishist — has already forged pieces from the horns of buffalo and fossilized tusks of woolly mammoth. Now she enters the late Jurassic era with dazzling pieces built around fossil fragments from stegosauruses and other giant reptiles that roamed the earth 150 million years ago. Monique Péan fossilized bone ring with white diamonds and 18-karat recycled gold, QR 29,620; moniquepean.com.

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Leave it to Stella McCartney, who has an uncanny way of having her finger on the pulse, to capitalize on the paddle boarding craze. This spring, the fashion designer has expanded her sportswear collection for Adidas to include a broader range of swimwear and surf wear. Bathing suits, wet suits, water pants and rash guards now come in bright, coral-reef colors like orange and blue, with bits of very pretty, very graphic leopard and botanical prints. ‘‘I want my sport-swim to look feminine,’’ she says. ‘‘Animals in the jungle, tropical flowers, it all has a sort of warm and sensual feel to it.’’ McCartney, who personally prefers light exercise (biking, horseback riding) to high endurance, first picked up paddle boarding in Brazil a few years ago. Here’s to hoping she gets into skiing by fall. JANE HERMAN BISHOP

stella M c cartney: Joe Schildhorn/billy Farrell Agency.

Sport Spectacular

Close Read

Double Duty Who knew that a bag needed to come with carrying instructions? Nearly every top-handle purse that came down the spring runway, like this all-American version by Michael Kors, was carried like a clutch, with the wrist through the strap. Michael Kors Middleton EW Flap Bag, QR 4,750.

Listen Up

A Nose for Prose In his new memoir, ‘‘The Diary of a Nose,’’ Jean-Claude Ellena, the official perfumer of Hermès, declares himself a ‘‘writer of smells.’’ While he may bring a poet’s sensitivity (and a scientist’s precision) to perfume making, his prose hangs somewhere between the beautiful and the inscrutable. Below, a few sniffs. 1. Great perfume has no gender.

‘‘If I compose a ‘men’s’ fragrance for a wide audience, I never fail to slip in some women’s ciphers, and vice versa for a so-called ‘women’s’ perfume. Fashion’s codes were invented to be transgressed, to be played on.’’ 2. All-natural is all wrong.

5. Bad smells don’t always stink.

‘‘My acute sense of smell means I can detect and identify all sorts of odors that may be intended to be secret or hidden . . . alcohol, tobacco, sweat, breath or strong food; they are all easy for me to pick up and are not necessarily unpleasant.’’ JULIA FELSENTHAL

‘‘I use just as many artificial products as natural ones. . . . It was the chemistry of perfume that allowed the artisans of perfumery . . . to become artists by freeing themselves from the constraints of nature.’’ 3. Everyone makes mistakes.

After earning indie cred opening for Bon Iver, this singing sister act from just outside London came out with ‘‘Dead & Born & Grown’’ (Atlantic), a neo-folk album that drew raves when it made its British debut last fall. With otherworldly harmonies and retro strums, the trio — Camilla, 23; Emily, 29; and Jessica StaveleyTaylor, 26 — evokes Woodstock-era troubadours like Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. ‘‘We’ve been listening to this kind of music for years,’’ Jessica says. Indeed, the siblings were raised on a steady diet of family singalongs. ‘‘For years, we thought our parents wrote ‘The Times They Are a-Changin,’ ’’ Camilla says. MATT DIEHL

4. Smells can be deceiving.

‘‘The fragrance of gardenias is a drama played out somewhere between jasmine and tuberose,’’ while narcissi ‘‘hovers between the fragrance of roses, white flowers and horse droppings.’’ illustration: konstantin kakanias; Staves: Rebecca Miller.

Meet the Staves

Until the ’70s, perfumes ‘‘were piled high, an accumulation. . . . I followed this model when I composed First for Van Cleef & Arpels in 1976. . . . I collected, borrowed and conflated every signal for femininity, wealth and power into this perfume, which, over time, has become alien to me.’’

Beautiful Creature

In the year of the snake, Bulgari revisits its iconic Serpenti jewlery collection, which produced sinuous charmers like this 1960s enamel, gold and ruby watch. An exhibit on these treasures — and the women who wore them (Veruschka, Marisa Berenson, Elizabeth Taylor) — is now on view at Bulgari’s Fifth Avenue shop. edward barsamian

Bulgari 18 karat gold, enamel and ruby bracelet watch, price on request.

Issue 18, 2013

This and That

Thrill of the Hunt

1950s

Candy apple red

As Sotheby’s readies to auction off the late Mark Birley’s storied estate, decorator Nina Campbell reflects on the legendary London tastemaker. mid-’80s

Slick cherry red

‘70s

Shiny, rosy red

mid-’90s

Deep, brick red

2000

Glossy bordeaux

Now

Matte, orangey red

Kisses

A very brief and informal history of the red lip, inspired by the breadth of matte orange on the spring runway.

Shopping was a sport at which Mark excelled. It was an enjoyable way to pass the time, but it was taken extremely seriously, whether in pursuit of a painting or the perfect chocolate. One of my earliest memories was when we went to the Rudding Park sale in Yorkshire when we were creating Mark’s Club. We took a helicopter — Mark brought along his dog, Help — and landed in a field of unsuspecting picnickers, which caused a bit of a stir. We managed to get a sofa at a huge price, and a nursery fender. Mark had a nose like a truffle hound’s when it came to seeking out specialist shops. In Naples, there was a tiny store, barely room for more than a couple of customers, that sold the best silk ties. In Milan, there was a trip to another shop where the toothbrushes were made of bone. In 1970, we decided to open a place on Pimlico Road, to sell all the things we thought essential. This included a variety of cushions, some embroidered by a Russian count, sweets from Fauchon in Paris and the most delicious honey that we found in Italy, sold in the most beautiful yellow ceramic jars. There were also pillow cases and breakfast china from the famous French linen company D. Porthault. It was soon branded a shop selling unashamed luxury! I think this was what Mark really stood for. To Mark, a perfectly boiled egg on a beautifully laid tray was as luxurious as caviar. As with all originals, you would never know what would catch his eye or amuse his senses. Although Mark will probably be remembered for the pictures that were so much a part of his house and his clubs, for me it will be the smaller things that you just had to pick up and touch because they were so very desirable. The pepper mills on the dining table, the apple-green opaline finger bowls and maybe most of all, the turquoise enamel taps in his bathroom. Sale at Sotheby’s London, March 21.

One for the Road For several years, Lisa Fine and Carolina Irving have been quietly perfecting the art of the airy caftan and the peasanty tunic with a fashion line that’s sold mostly at trunk shows and online. Their clothes convey a jet-set life where one flits breezily from Patmos to Punjab. Now Lucky Brand has tapped the duo to do a collection including flowy tops, delicately embroidered jackets and a soukready jute-and-leather tote that delivers the pair’s signature style at prices that are downright proletariat. JULIA FELSENTHAL

Top, QR 550, bag, QR 475, by Lisa Fine and Carolina Irving for Lucky Brand; luckybrand.com.

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illustration: konstantin kakanias. Book Still LIfe: Russell Gera, book left page: dan martensen, book Right Page, ‘‘heaving Dog,’’ From the book ‘‘Bill Traylor: His Art, His Life’’/Ricco/Maresca Gallery; Birley: fritz von der schulenburg/the interior archive.

Lookout

On the Verge

The Boy With the Golden Touch

SERIOUS BUSINESS Jonathan Anderson takes a break from preparing for his men’s show, in his east London studio.

The designer behind J. W. Anderson has leapfrogged to the forefront of London’s fashion scene by challenging notions of masculine and feminine dressing, aligning himself with industry powerhouses and keeping his eye on the international prize. By Penny Martin Photograph by ronald dick

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A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE The Irish-born designer brings transgression and humor to both his women’s collection (spring 2013 pictured left and center) as well as his men’s collection (fall 2013, right).

Issue 18, 2013

Rory van Millingen (3).

the eve of what promises to be his most crucial season in fashion yet, Jonathan Anderson sat down in his studio in Shacklewell, in east London, to take in the moment. Surrounded by racks of polythene bags housing his signature crazy knits and wearing jeans and a bottle green sweatshirt, the Northern Irish designer looked more like he was ensconced in an upmarket dry cleaner’s than in the launch pad for the industry’s new breakout star. To describe the past six weeks as a whirlwind for him and his brand, J. W. Anderson, would be an understatement. Not only had his Topshop collaboration surpassed all expectations, becoming the high street store’s most successful yet, Anderson, 28, won the Emerging Talent Award for Ready-to-Wear at the British Fashion Awards in November. Then came the cherry on top: the announcement that he would present a one-off capsule collection for Versus, Versace’s little sister brand, during New York Fashion Week, following in the footsteps of his fellow London-based designer Christopher Kane. Anderson’s appointment at Versus surely ruffled a few feathers among his peer London-based designers, several of whom could have been forgiven for assuming they were further up the queue for such a prestigious job. J. W. Anderson began as a men’s-wear brand in 2007 — only in the past two years has it shown

women’s wear. In that short time, Anderson’s ingenious interweaving of the masculine and feminine elements of the two lines has brought vigor and modernity to both. Critics praise the thrilling awkwardness of his collections, which pit the synthetic (lumpy heat-sealed satin for girls, patent leather kneehigh boots for boys) against the handcrafted (Aran knits, traditional paisley prints). Meanwhile his customers positively lap up the pragmatic day wear at the heart of the business — J. W. Anderson is now stocked across the world, from Saks Fifth Avenue and Dover Street Market to Opening Ceremony, Selfridges and Joyce. Anderson conceded that the Versus appointment compounded an already backbreaking workload for his nine-strong team. His impressive fall 2013 men’s show last month — an audaciously subversive parade of ruffle-trimmed shorts, strapless tabard tops and even a sculptured minidress — raised the bar for his women’s offering, to be unveiled at London Fashion Week on Feb. 18. It is scheduled in the highprofile slot after Tom Ford, and Anderson hadn’t yet had time to think about the collection, let alone the show. As he intermittently drew hard on his cigarette, disarranged his sandy hair and fiddled with a constantly shuddering BlackBerry, it was easy to suspect he was feeling nervous. From the grin on his baby face, though, you got the feeling that such precocious expansion was always part of the J. W. Anderson master plan. ‘‘Versus has brought even more pressure, definitely,’’ he said in a Northern Irish brogue, softened by a distinctly mid-Atlantic lilt. ‘‘But it’s also brought us into focus as a brand internationally and that’s exciting. Really exciting.’’ ‘‘The thing is, I’m not from here,’’ he said of his outsider’s confidence to step outside the supportive, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood-style community of London fashion. (Unlike in New York, where young designers typically work independently of each other, in London it’s not uncommon to see friends share studio space, runway shows and even stylists.) He has

On the Verge

benefited ‘‘significantly’’ from London’s NewGen fund, awarded to rising young designers, and credits the British Fashion Council’s touring showroom with maximizing his exposure. But ultimately Anderson wants to build a brand that’s respected internationally, not just in Britain. ‘‘And in this industry, I think you have to choose your peers.’’ Anderson cited the leading fashion photographers Steven Meisel and David Sims, the superstylists MarieAmélie Sauvé, Joe McKenna (who is fashion director at large of this magazine) and Benjamin Bruno, and the art directors M/M (Paris) as inspirational colleagues — most of whom are a generation ahead of him in career terms. ‘‘It’s just my nature to set the benchmark high,’’ he explained. ‘‘Sometimes that can be misconstrued as arrogance, but I think it’s important for young designers to really push.’’ Courage and perseverance is part of the Anderson DNA, after all. The designer’s father is Willie Anderson, the motivational speaker and former Irish rugby star who made history in 1989 when he led his national side into a controversial face-off while the opposing team was still performing the sacred haka war dance. While Anderson Junior is perhaps less intimidating, he is not afraid of the road less traveled. Acting, not designing, was his first love. He left home in rural Magherafelt 11 years ago to study acting in Washington, D.C., until an obsession with costume distracted him from performance. He didn’t immediately head for the atelier, however; first he developed his fashion credentials at the Prada visual merchandising department, working under its charismatic leader Manuela Pavesi. When he finally opted to study fashion design in London, he enrolled not at the famous Central St. Martins but at the men’s-wear department at London College of Fashion — traditionally the more industry-focused of the two English institutions, and recently one as committed to brand development, business and marketing as to design. With a 360-degree perspective on the industry, Anderson is representative of a new breed of

OFFICE HOURS At work in his atelier (left and below). The designer came to fashion after studying acting and working in visual merchandising at Prada.

designer who is as prolific on Twitter and as literate in HTML as he is in the art of stitching a rouleau loop. And paradoxically, it is this broader engagement with the fashion industry that allows Anderson to remain at a remove from it. ‘‘I like keeping a slight distance,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s why I named the company after an abbreviation rather than my full name. That way, the brand will live on when I’m gone.’’ His detachment is more symbolic than actual; he will work long days until his women’s show is on the runway. But it does allow him some semblance of a home life. The texts that kept his phone rumbling throughout our interview turned out to be from his mother, who was in the process of putting his two new English pointer puppies, Sebastian and Steen, on a plane from Belfast International Airport to London Heathrow. Anderson noted how they’d play havoc in his Dalston apartment but that he was planning to move out of central London in any case. Perhaps he’d commute from leafy Richmond in far west London, where there’s more room to breathe. ‘‘I doubt I’ll be getting a holiday this year,’’ he reasoned. ‘‘But with a nice big back garden, I think I can make things work.’’

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GENDER STUDIES For Anderson, boy always meets girl, as seen in the fall 2011 and spring 2012 women’s collections (left, center) and the men’s spring 2013 collection (far right).

from Top: Kasia Bobula; Rory van Millingen; christopher morre/cat walking; marcus tondo/go runway; Rory van Millingen.

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Runway Report

styled by catherine newell-hanson. market editor: dania ortiz. model: Heather lucas.

Print on Print Personal style isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always about effortlessly mixing color and texture. Sometimes itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about choosing one strong pattern and sticking with it. Photographs by Brea Souders

Top row, from left: Mulberry jacket, QR 17,615, shirt, QR 670, skirt, QR 4,955, bag, QR 8,440; mulberry.com. Dries Van Noten dress, QR 5,890, QR 2,220. Gucci top, QR 4,955, pants, QR 7,156, bag, QR 4,845; gucci.com. Second row: Kenzo jacket, price on request, pants, QR 2,367, bag, QR 2,940. Tory Burch dress, QR 1,820, bag, QR 2,750; toryburch.com. Zero + Maria Cornejo jacket, QR 4,750, dress, QR 3,285, pouch, QR 640. Marc Jacobs dress, QR 5,140, bag, QR 6,220. Third row: 3.1 Phillip Lim dress, QR 3,120, pants, QR 1,560, bag, QR 1,925. Ralph Lauren Collection dress, QR 25,680, bag, QR 7,156. Bottom row: Marc Jacobs jacket, QR 4,400, skirt, QR 2,290, bag, QR 5,850. Louis Vuitton dress, QR 10,520, bag, QR 12,660. Etro dress, QR 71,470, bag, QR 6,130.

Issue 18, 2013

Lookout

Take Two

Chelsea Handler

Oscar de la Renta

Take Two

Salty host of E!’s Hollywood-centric gab-fest ‘‘Chelsea Lately’’ and best-selling author, with an eclectic dating record that includes 50 Cent and André Balazs.

A dual review of what’s new.

Legendary fashion designer who has dressed the swans of New York for more than five decades, unofficial ambassador to the Dominican Republic, dashing merengue dancer.

SHOE

These feel as light as paper but are really sturdy and don’t make my feet look huge. I’ll be wearing these on the treadmill and, if I get lazy, probably with some gowns.

Featherweight FlyKnit Lunar 1+ running sneaker by Nike, QR 590.

I have never worn a pair of sneakers in my life. I used to play a lot of tennis, but I only used white tennis shoes. Everyone in my office said I should try them, so I did. They were very comfortable.

SHOW

If The New York Times would like to buy me the Manet of the lady with the fans, I would be so happy.

I wish corsets would come back to replace Spanx. At least everyone knows when you’re wearing a corset.

I was so excited that I broke the egg perfectly. But then I made my brother Roy, the chef, finish it. It was delicious but I live in L.A., so I will be truthful: I didn’t eat the bread.

I love eggs. This is the kind of thing I would love to have for breakfast every day, except that the yellow is high in cholesterol.

DISH

Recipe in ‘‘How to Boil an Egg’’ (Phaidon, QR 130) from the famed Rose Bakery in Paris.

Well, now I know why my stylist has been dressing me like an elf for the past few months.

I think that the true emerald from Colombia is the better green — it has more depth — but I love green. In Spanish, we say green is the color of hope. This one is the color of money.

COLOR Emerald, named by Pantone as Color of the Year for 2013.

FILM

If I knew how to use my remote control, I would actually watch the DVD. But just from the name it sounds like a comedy that Tyler Perry might be in — so I like it already. Go Madea.

‘‘In the House,’’ from François Ozon, the mischievous auteur behind ‘‘Swimming Pool,’’ with Kristin Scott Thomas.

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I love Kristin Scott Thomas and all her films. She is an ugly-beautiful woman. She doesn’t fulfill the characteristics of a great beauty, but she’s great looking.

Handler: Nate Beckett/Splash News/Corbis; de la Renta: Henry S. Dziekan III/WireImage/Getty Images; Manet: édouard Manet, ‘‘Lady with Fans (Portrait of Nina de callias),’’ 1873, Musée d’orsay, paris; Egg: Fiona Strickland/Phaidon Press; ‘‘In the House’’: Cohen Media Group.

‘‘Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity,’’ at the Metropolitan .Museum of Art, opens Feb. 26

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In Store

Modern in Mumbai With a pair of boutiques that offer cutting-edge Western fashion and design, Cecilia Morelli Parikh is betting that India’s fashionable set will embrace understatement.

Cecilia Morelli Parikh is still a woman on a mission. Nearly two years ago, with Julie Leymarie and Aurélie de Limelette, she opened Le Mill, a multibrand fashion and home store, in a converted warehouse in a gritty section of Mumbai, India, which brought a contemporary Western aesthetic to an affluent Indian shopper. Last November, Morelli Parikh and her co-founders (Leymarie is a former L’Oréal executive; de Limelette has designed numerous displays for Hermès) rolled out a second store, this one in the city’s decidedly fancier Breach Candy area. Morelli Parikh describes the first store’s location as the equivalent of New York’s ‘‘meatpacking district, 30 years ago,’’ while the new store’s surroundings are ‘‘the Upper East Side.’’ At 1,900 square feet, the second Le Mill is much smaller than the 15,000-square-foot flagship store (which, as of next month, will carry only home products, including the

T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

Living by design Clockwise from top left: Cecilia Morelli Parikh at home in Mumbai with a dining chair by BDDW; Le Mill’s second store, with a Thierry Betancourt table; bedding from Abraham & Thakore; a pillow and chair from Le Mill's inhouse collection; a Mumbai street.

STILL LIFE: COURTESY OF LE MILL

By pilar viladas Photographs by THIBAULT MONTAMAT

local colors Clockwise from top left: a rug, Soho sofa, Ikat plates and Kew desk, all from the Le Mill Collection.

STILL LIFE: COURTESY OF LE MILL. ALL OTHER PHOTOS: THIBAULT MONTAMAT.

Home base Above and left: Le Mill’s flagship store, which carries primarily furniture and home accessories, from its own line and from selected Western companies.

store’s own furniture and tabletop lines, designed by de Limelette, as well as European brands like Carl Hansen & Son, Gervasoni and Gubi). In contrast to the flagship’s industrial look — the name Le Mill refers to the building’s early life as a rice mill — the new store is ‘‘more polished,’’ Morelli Parikh says. The entry floor is painted in a gray and white abstract geometric pattern; the cashier’s desk is a shipping container painted glossy white. It’s the perfect backdrop for the store’s sharply focused fashion offerings — from contemporary labels like 3.1 Phillip Lim, Alexander Wang, Erdem and the Row — as well as jewelry by Mawi, En Inde, Shourouk and Tom Binns, among others, and gift items and tableware. This spare but sensual look — in design as well as fashion — is what Morelli Parikh and her co-founders want to bring to the Indian luxury goods market, which still lags well behind that of, say, China. It wasn’t that long ago that Indian women began to abandon traditional dress for Western fashion, and even then they often chose flashy over fashion-forward. Add India’s high import duties and the fact that affluent Indians, who travel frequently, prefer to shop in London, Dubai and New York, and the women behind Le Mill had their work cut out for them. But none of this fazes the American-born, Londonraised Morelli Parikh, who, after working at Bergdorf Goodman, married Rohan Parikh — who runs the real

estate and construction branch of his family’s shipping company, Apurva Natvar Parikh Group, or A.N.P.G. — and settled in Mumbai two years ago. She noticed a lack of multibrand stores, and realized that while many Western fashion and home products are made in India, with its traditions of craftsmanship, those goods — and their contemporary aesthetic — were generally not available there. So she, Leymarie and de Limelette set about ‘‘bringing that heritage into the 21st century,’’ away from heavy and ornate toward a lighter, more modern take on tradition. It is no surprise that the apartment that Morelli Parikh and her husband share, in an Art Deco building on Marine Road (which has one of the largest concentration of Art Deco buildings in the world), embodies her ‘‘more natural, raw, delicate’’ outlook. The 2,400-square-foot space’s monochromatic restraint is leavened by contemporary Indian artworks and luxurious touches like the master bedroom’s inlaid marble floor. The furnishings are a mix of de Limelette’s understated pieces for Le Mill, Western classics like a Carl Hansen & Son lounge chair and contemporary works like dining chairs by BDDW in New York (available by special order at Le Mill). The look is comfortable and stylish, but modern. And that is exactly the direction that Morelli Parikh is taking with Le Mill’s second store. Now that younger, less mainstream designers have proven to be successful, Le Mill has introduced fashion from what Morelli Parikh calls ‘‘even edgier’’ labels like Peter Pilotto and Mary Katrantzou. Still, Morelli Parikh explains that there’s a market for more classic clothing, so this month Joseph will join the store’s designer roster. But its biggest move to date will be the addition of Azzedine Alaïa in March. Morelli Parikh explains that the designer already has a following among the store’s core customers, about 50 women who represent a good 60 percent of Le Mill’s readyto-wear business. ‘‘Alaïa is sexy, but it’s so chic,’’ she says. Le Mill is forging ahead with plans to open stores in other prosperous Indian cities, like Delhi and Bangalore, and an e-commerce site will make its debut next month: ‘‘There is lots of wealth in third- and fourth-tier cities where there are no shops,’’ Morelli Parikh says. Being a tastemaker in a brave new world is ‘‘incredibly challenging,’’ she adds, ‘‘but really fun.’’

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Seasonal Colors This spring/summer Mulberry takes us back to the '70s. The color palette draws from the influences of traditional and rural England. Layered into the colors are seasonal signature prints, giving visual depth and texture to the palette. English florals meet tropical geckos on an irreverent new design scaled up and printed as a gradient repeat or duplicated as a miniature gecko in contrasting color-ways, panel-blocked for maximum graphic effect. The design also transfers to multiscale jacquards, woven into the fabric. In addition, contemporary florals stand alone, intertwined and layered throughout the collection.

Miu Miu Maximum Puma Inspired by the Cat Global sports brand Puma launches a new category of performance running shoes

Craig Giansiracusa, Puma’s Senior Product Development Manager, describes the shoe as “a unique fit, almost anatomical.” “The marketplace is currently driven by shoes that are static, and Puma has created this running shoe with patent-pending, break through technologies that work together as a system, creating a new class of footwear. We really have achieved something worthwhile, something that nobody else is doing,” says Craig. And the inspiration behind the design is the “planet’s most efficient running machine, the cat. Designers looked at what makes cats so efficient and fast, and how the human foot moves in similar ways.” One of the many "revolutionary" aspects of the running shoe, according to Craig is the Puma Mobium Elite’s 'Mobium Band', constructed to enhance the foot’s natural spring. Running through the outsole in a figure eigh that is designed to work like the tendons in the foot. The ‘Expansion Pods’ on the outsole of the shoe expand and contract with the foot. As a result, the shoe’s cushioning, protection and flexibility encourages a more efficient stride and offers runners a smoother transition. The lightweight design is achieved by the due EVA midsole material: a proven compound that’s lightweight and durable.

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Miu Miu re-interprets feminine elegance with its new accessories range made in craque leather. This unique material is achieved by cracking the leather’s colored dye on the surface, giving a sophisticated and aged aesthetic to pumps and to the bi-color shopping bag. Cipria, red, geranio and black are used separately in footwear and in combination for an elegant shopping bag. The designs are available at Miu Miu stores and also at miumiu.com

Ralph Lauren

Romanticism Relived “For the Spring 2013 collection I was inspired by the vibrant bohemian spirit, the artistry of things handmade and personal style that is as rich as it is romantic,” said Ralph Lauren revealing the spring 2013 collection . The collection brings to life palettes of jewel tones and stark black, white and gold, united in worldly themes and modern silhouettes. Accessories include silk fringe, ornate beadwork and laser-cut leathers demonstrating the artisan craftsmanship that defines this season’s collection.

Hybridity Explored It’s that time of the year again when the local design school brings together talent from across the seas to its annual design conference. Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, in partnership with the Qatar Foundation and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art organized the biennial international design conference Tasmeem Doha 2013 – ‘Hybrid Making’, which was open to the public took place from March, 10 to 17, 2013. A major component of the conference was the exploration of the role art and design are playing in the transformation of Doha – from a small pearl fishing community to a preeminent center for the arts, popular tourism destination, and home to more than 1.8 million, all in just a few decades. The conference’s theme of “hybrid making” explored hybridity within the acts of making, building and sustaining a contemporary society, engaging with art, design and other interventions that have been conceived, designed or fabricated in Qatar. The outcomes of this process will remain on view at Mathaf through March 31.

Issue 18, 2013

Lookout Qatar

Spotlight On The Doha Jewelry and Watches Exhibition in its tenth edition did not disappoint its patrons. The Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) announced that visitors to the event increased by 50% this year compared with last year's show. TQatar brings you some of the exhibition's brilliant moments. Garrard

Steeped in History Garrard’s new head of design, Sara Prentice, is “phenomenal”, says the brand’s CEO, Eric Deardorff. Her over 20 years of experience, combined with a keen eye and creativity, have contributed to some stunning interwoven emerald and diamond pieces, many including detachable elements. Founded in 1735, the oldest jewelry brand in the world has served royalty jewelry, tiaras and other fine luxury goods. Their modernday pieces are inspired by ancestors that have rested on the heads of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary and Princess Diana. “So a lot of our current pieces have historic stories to them,” Deardorff says. “We bring the past to the beautiful, stunning jewelry you see now.” Setting up shop at the Doha Jewelry and Watches Exhibition, Deardorff said the number one goal for Garrard is visibility. Second was continuing to solidify its partnership with Ali Bin Ali.

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Pomellato

Everyday Opulence Some luxury jewelry is made to sit in a safe the majority of its lifespan. These creations are released every so often on special occasions worthy of their luminosity. Pomellato does create high-end formalwear, but it is also working with “a more everyday jewelry concept, which I think distinguishes us from the other beautiful brands I see here,” said Nicole Taylor, Head of International Sales. The brand started out selling gold chains, and moved on to introduce precious and semiprecious stones married with primarily 18ct rose gold, as in their popular Nudo ring collection. “The same attention to quality and to care is given to the jewelry for everyday use,” she said. “But the aesthetic is made with a special eye for making it not too ostentatious to wear during the day. And it’s really meant to go from the office to the supermarket to a dinner, and it’s always appropriate.”

Panerai

The Time-Keepers Combining Italian design and Swiss horological perfection, each year Officine Panerai brings its latest watches to buyers from around the world. Milvin George, Managing Director Officine Panerai was in Doha for the Exhibition and spoke extensively about the brand and its presence in the region. He said, “For us, the exhibition is a chance to connect with our collectors and esteemed customers in Qatar. These are faithful customers who follow Panerai, whom we know from our boutique and from our partners at Ali Bin Ali Watches and Jewelry.” The company launched a special watch in time for the Doha exhibition. “We also introduced a ceramic watch. This is an automatic watch with a three-day power reserve. The special thing about ceramic is that it’s five times harder than stainless steel and it doesn’t get scratched easily. We produced only 1,000 pieces worldwide. It is a unique piece, launched in the Middle East for the first time,” he said. The Gulf markets have a lot of similarities in terms of shopping habits and behavior, and Qatar is one of the growing markets. George added, “There’s a great deal of interest in the art of watch making in Doha. Most of the Qataris and expatriates here are exposed to luxury. It is a market that has great potential for us.”

Leo Pizzo

An Ode to Gemstones This Italian jewelry house is famed for its excellent gemstones and handcrafted work. “The clients here demonstrate a very deep understanding of jewelry, perhaps an ode to their ornate history. Every year, we try to present original and unique new pieces because this is what they are looking for. And it helps that the exhibition is so well-organized that we are proud to be associated with it,” said Sarah Pizzo, wife to the founder of the brand Leo Pizzo. Sarah, a gemologist, travels the world with her family who are part of the business, looking for unique and special cuts of gemstones to turn into exotic jewelry pieces. “Every piece that we make is different because every gemstone that we source is unique.”

Mouawad

A Masterpiece Mouawad revealed for the first time, its latest masterpiece – the Mouawad L’Incomparable Diamond Necklace, featuring 91 diamonds totalling 635.40 carats in weight. The 'heavy' diamond necklace embraces the Incomparable Diamond, the world’s largest internally flawless diamond graded by the GIA, weighing 407.48 carats. Issue 18, 2013

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Shimmering Jewels Bouquet d’Ailes Inspired by the naturalist period of the 1990s, the Bouquet d’Ailes is a work of art, an assembly of butterfly, dragonfly wings and peacock feathers.

Fifty One East, the luxury retail chain, dazzled at the annual Doha Jewelry and Watches Exhibition.

Pasquale Bruni Introduces Liberty The regally elegant Liberty collection of Pasquale Bruni’s jewelry collection recalls the concept of freedom and artistic movement that breaks away from the styles of the past to create a totally original one, inspired by nature and set in a unique decorative style.

Fifty One East rolled out its collections from the celebrated names such as Rolex, Boucheron - within an exclusive wing - Pasquale Bruni, Armand Nicolet, Faberge Watches, Tudor, Diamanti, B R M, Erwin Sattler, Fitzroy London, H. Moser & Cie, Vulcain, Feraud Joaillerie, Franco Pianegonda, Guy Laroche, Jeell, Joelli Jewelry, Pandora, Tirisi Jewelry and Tirisi Moda, Victor Mayer, Parker and Waterman. Darwish Holding, Chairman, Bader Abdullah Al-Darwish said: “In its 10th edition to date, the Doha Jewelry and Watches Exhibition continues to be a beacon of attraction to those who appreciate the craftsmanship behind this incredible industry. Our brand name Fifty One East has been recognized as the epitome of luxury and the true definition of a world for the savviest and most seasoned experts and enthusiasts.”

Animaux collection From the humming bird to the chameleon, not to mention the tiger and the elephant, every year Boucheron adds to its enchanted menagerie.

Boucheron: The Maison Boucheron would not be known without the genius of its founder, Frederic Boucheron. Passionate about beauty and endowed with an innate sense of luxury, he opened his first boutique at the Palais Royal. More than 150 years later, the Boucheron atelier has become legendary and continues to create the savoir-faire of the maison.

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Clients can customize their loafers, right down to the leather, horsebit detail to even getting their initials inscribed.

The Historic Loafer Gucci's legendary shoe celebrates its 60th anniversary Photographs by Judith J

Gucci's horse-bit loafer was born in 1953 out of Aldo Gucciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

love for the equestrian lifestyle. Over the years it has graced the feet of Hollywood's leading men, including Clark Gable, John Wayne and Fred Astaire, and been worn by current superstars like Brad Pitt and Madonna. To celebrate its sixtieth anniversary, Gucci is offering the made-toorder(MTO) collection for men and women. Creative Director Frida Giannini has envisioned a bold combination of colors and materials and a new shape bearing the hardware that is part of the legacy. The loafer boasts a tubular construction that requires exceptional skill in crafting. Only select shoemakers possess the expertise for this highly specialized workmanship. As the insole is absent, the shoe is light, pliable, supremely comfortable and obviously very stylish. Last month, Gucci's most skilled Italian artisans were in Dubai to showcase their extraordinary expertise at the Gucci store in Dubai Mall. The artisans demonstrated the renowned Florentine craftsmanship, and customers had the opportunity to see up-close how these elegant and timeless pieces are crafted.

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The uppers are sewn together by hand which not only requires experience but also great strength

Creative Director Frida Giannini has envisioned a bold combination of colors and materials and a new shape bearing the hardware that is part of the legacy.

The traditional craft requires a seasoned group of shoemakers, sewers and cutters working together.

The craftsmen attach the leather loafers by hand with a nail and hammer. Tubular construction of the loafer ensures ultimate comfort and style.

Issue 18, 2013

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Hey, Sole Mister:

Christian Louboutin Waxes Poetic on Male Footwear Appreciation, Keeping Calm, and Nicole Kidman. Like observing a songbird perched in scarlet glory after a long, tough winter, a flash of Christian Louboutin's vermilion-soled pumps inevitably cajoles the same sort of innate, reactionary joy. It's fashion frisson immortalized â&#x20AC;&#x201C; every time that iconic slice of red streaks its way across the landscape, someone notices and feels the sartorial satisfaction therein. By nick remsen

T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

hat such astute recognition is ingrained in the otherwise lowly sole is no small feat, in terms of marketing. Louboutin doesn't smatter his platforms and plimsolls with logos per se. Yet his trademark isn't necessarily subtle, either. He hass somehow counterpoised the obvious and the oblique, creating an icon in paint and nothing more. That brilliant stroke has thus translated into hundreds of millions of dirhams’ worth of revenue time, and a cult following considered among the most loyal and bonded in all of luxury retail. Yet for a majority of his brand's existence, Louboutin lust only applied to women; the designer didn't offer anything for the guys in the room. That has since changed via an aggressive worldwide expansion of his men's footwear collection, tapping a lucrative commercial vein from the airwaves of Hollywood to the shores of Dubai. "Funnily enough, when I started to design the line, a lot of men would come to me and say 'I feel jealous of my girlfriend!'" concedes Louboutin, over tea in the basement of his Dover Street men's store in London. "Men have what was previously just reserved for women, in terms of excitement [around footwear] – that impulse exists in men too." It's unarguably true – sales in high-end men's fashion have excelled in recent seasons, with some luxury houses seeing compound advancement in terms of percentage breakdowns. Given Louboutin's proclivity for all things flamboyant, the male public's increasing appreciation of seasonal and trend-driven design caters exactly to the designer's modus operandi. It's no small wonder, then, that Louboutin's kicks are name-dropped on everything from A$AP Rocky songs ("red bottom loafers just to complement the mink) to Venetian red-carpets to internationally spotlit events. ("There is one picture that I love, I have to say. It was Nicole Kidman at Princess Diana's funeral, and she was in all black, and a veiled hat. All black, but a flash of red sole," he recalls.) His men's line began, as it would surprisingly turn out, via the Lebanese pop star Mika. While Louboutin had been privately crafting shoes for himself for years, it was Mika's fandom that sparked the inception of the collection. "I had to build an electric wire system for some boots for his show," says the cobbler, charmingly. "There was this whole outrageous system that had to go into the boot." From there, the splinter grew "organically". Espadrille sandals, evoking luxe Grecian beach-bumming, were early examples (this author bought a pair way-back-when at Louboutin's Miami, USA outpost). Likewise with dancing flats, and the emergence of his now highly sought-after spiked slippers. These conic studs, almost weapon-like in their rigidity, have ostensibly become as much of a signature as his red sole, along with the juxtaposition of exotic textiles and monograms aplenty. When questioned as to the differences between his respective retail market tastes, Louboutin admits: "Well, everything that is more velvet-y in color is stronger in England, and what would be considered 'rock-and-roll' style is big in America." For the Gulf? Thongs. "Due to the climate, the big thing is sandals. A friend of mine from Jeddah offered me a pair, and I did versions for both sexes, in my own way. We launched them globally, but they definitely became stronger in the Middle East. I love those sandals." Despite the nuances in developing an alternate planetary brand and ID on top of a strong pre-existing image, Louboutin remains relaxed about the evolution. "It hasn't

“Men have what was previously just reserved for women, in terms of excitement around footwear – that impulse exists in men too.”

been stressful," he allows. "The only problems are the little ones. Suppliers are different, the way I look at the suppliers is different, the way I look at leathers, the way I look at details. But once it's all set up, it's fine..." It is a healthy (though privileged) outlook, obviously made possible by the immense success and subsequent financial cushion of his women's line - why shouldn't he have tested the waters? As if on cue, Louboutin elucidates his good-naturedness regarding the process: "I have pictures of men pointing at their shoes. It's funny, because you'd think it'd be from the front, which would be more of a masculine attitude, but there are a few from the back!" Color us sole-struck; Louboutin is thus among the very few offering style-savvy gents exactly what we're looking for, wherever we may be.

Issue 18, 2013

Lookout Qatar

McLaren Design Director Frank Stephenson with the P1 - his latest design achievement

The McLaren P1 is special because it ultimately achieves what it

Designing Auto Icons McLaren's Design Director, Frank Stephenson, is fully aware that when it comes to car design, it's his duty to lead and not to follow trends. Ferrari F430, Mini Cooper, Fiat 500, Maserati MC12, BMW X5 – his talent is crystal clear in his striking conquests. The designer extraordinaire talks to T Emirates about his career and latest delivery – the McLaren P1. By Orna Ballout

T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

sets out to do - be the best performing road car ever. That’s what the designer, Frank Stephenson, Design Director at McLaren, Britain’s famous Formula 1 racing brand, has to say about his best product design to date. “The car appears fast because it is fast, looks light because it is light, and looks shaped by the wind because it is shaped by the wind. The rear wing is a special design feature that contributes to giving the P1 its huge amount of down force, over 600 kilos, and that’s race car territory,” he adds. Glass is featured prominently throughout, even above the driver’s head, to allow maximum visibility; minimalistic interior design features provide just the right amount of information so as not to distract occupants - but the headlamp is Stephenson’s favorite feature. “While using the latest all-LED technology, its overall shape is inspired by the McLaren Speedmark, our logo. A certain amount of design freedom that didn’t affect negatively on the performance or handling characteristics of the car was used to create the eyes of the car. As a design, they carry the DNA of McLaren,” he says. While Stephenson prefers to be inspired “by the sensuality of nature and the organic shapes linked to nature”, if the P1 was a person, it would be compared to an athlete in top physical condition. “The body of P1 is wrapped tightly against its powerful muscles, like a naturally developed bodybuilder with a very low BMI number.” Coming up with fresh ideas is not a challenge for Stephenson. “One thing I’ve learned in my years of creating is never to fall in love with your work. Admire it and respect it, yes, but the moment you are completely satisfied and out of ideas on how to improve it is the moment you cease to be a true designer,” he says.

Stephenson’s favorite feature, the headlamp, takes inspiration from the McLaren Speedmark, the brand’s logo.

Starting young Being behind the design of some of the most iconic cars is a profession many people can only dream about, but Frank Stephenson’s dream became a reality. However, this was no easy feat. Stephenson was one out of six of a group of thirty students who survived until the end of an intensive automotive design course. “There are not many practicing car designers out in the field because too many would tend to either

“One thing I’ve learned in my years of creating is never to fall in love with your work. Admire it and respect it, yes, but the moment you are completely satisfied and out of ideas on how to improve it is the moment you cease to be a true designer."

Stephenson poses in between his sketching sessions

dilute or confuse a company’s design language, so the number of available positions in the real world remains relatively small.” Stephenson became obsessed with cars when he was just 10. One Sunday morning, as he strolled through downtown Casablanca with his father, he recollects the first time he spotted a Jaguar E-type parked on Boulevard Mohamed V. “It literally stopped me in my tracks - until my father had to finally drag me away - and I still remember the goose bumps that riveting experience gave me.” The young car enthusiast’s passion for cars evolved, and after graduating from high school, he fulfilled

another boys’ dream, competing at an international level in motocross. “Although I was consistently in the top ten for four seasons, I never quite made it up to the podium, and thankfully my father had the vision to convince me, to put me on to another path and goal in life. He stood behind my choice of going to California to study Automotive Design and, if it wasn’t for him believing in me, I’d probably be working with current cars today instead of creating new cars for the future.” Stephenson got his first break when he signed a contract with Ford Motor Company in 1986, and his ambition drove him to sdesign for the top names in the industry. He joined McLaren in 2008, where he designed its latest product, the McLaren P1, acclaimed as the next generation of supercar that will probably cause anyone who sets eyes on it to drool at its stunning looks. Creativity unleashed Seeing a creative concept flourish into a fully functioning machine offers Stephenson comfort when he sits behind the wheel. “There’s a tremendous feeling of warm familiarity that comes from having imagined it first within your mind and then the reality of physically going through the process of creating it. Because it comes from inside you, it feels as if part of your soul is somehow within the finished design and that results in a very personal and emotional bond.” When the design devotee isn’t busy brainstorming new concepts at the McLaren office in Woking, England (not many can say they love going to work in the morning and hate leaving in the evening), he enjoys time with his other passions: his wife Linda, his dog Sierra, “quiet weekends cruising the River Thames together with friends on Riverbreeze, our beautiful slipper launch, early Sunday morning blasts along country back roads on my Ducati 1198 S, and traveling to exciting new places as often as possible. The contemplative moments are invariably accompanied by my love for a good cigar and a single malt.”

Issue 18, 2013

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Asia’s Time Billionaire philanthropist, publisher and group CEO of Beaumont Publishing, Frank Cintamani is the driving force behind Men’s Fashion Week, Women’s Fashion Week and Haute Couture Week in Singapore. He talks to Alexandra Kohut-Cole.

With a style personality that is "decisive,

passionate, visionary", the man who brought haute couture to Singapore, Frank Cintamani, sees the development of the Singapore fashion scene as dynamic, particularly over the past five years. He says, "What is vital is the development of creative and design talent in the continuing refinement of fashion events and platforms." The Fide Fashion Weeks that he created are a determined endeavor to fast-track this fashion culture, "one which appreciates and understands the history, dynamics and world of fashion." Frank's curiosity for fashion was fortified by witnessing the Paris couture shows. "I was completely mesmerized by the beauty, artistry and complexity of the collections." As he took time to meet designers, industry leaders and key players in the industry, he "gained a greater appreciation for the complexity of not just couture but fashion and fashion design as a whole". Couture Magazine, in his publishing stable, is the only title in the region dedicated to haute couture. He hosted Couture Week in Bangkok with Her Majesty the Queen of Thailand and in 2012 Haute Couture Week in Singapore in conjunction with HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco in support of the prince's foundation. "I was fortunate to have been introduced and directed to Didier Grumbach, the President of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. There was an immediate meeting of minds, as we both shared a common goal to ensure the future of haute couture. He is a passionate believer in the need for haute couture to

T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

evolve and explore key markets such as Asia, and I clearly shared a vision of establishing Singapore as a gateway into the region. Of course, couture is only one element, and I recognized the need to present a more holistic offering and representation of fashion. This was the genesis of the Fide Fashion Weeks and the desire to present a broad perspective that included menswear and ready-to-wear as well as haute couture." Frank's concentration on couture focused to the point of bringing haute couture to Asia, namely Singapore, because he is driven "by a fundamental belief that it is now 'Asia's time'". He believes that beyond the financial influence of the region, there is a "tremendous creative potential that needs to be developed and explored, especially within the world of fashion." When quizzed on the designers that he admires the most, he mentions Yumi Katsura "who despite over 50 years in the industry remains as driven as the day she started", Guo Pei, who demonstrates that "the essence

AFP PHOTO / THOMAS SAMSON

of couture is as vibrant in China as it is in Paris," and On Aura Tout Vu establishing that "couture is more than a romantic or classic form of femininity." The earlier part of his career was spent advising on project finance and wealth management solutions for families across Asia. More recently, he has developed a number of multi-media initiatives including events for luxury brands and a successful publishing business. "The fashion weeks are an extension of that and all of them are quite closely interlinked," he says. For one whose varied career has taken him all over the world, how would he define his biggest achievement so far? "I have always recognized that success in business presents an opportunity to make a difference to those less fortunate. As such, imbuing a strong element of philanthropy and social responsibility into the various initiatives has been very important to me. Of course, setting these up and seeing them succeed has been rewarding, but the biggest achievement has been supporting a myriad of charitable causes and foundations." And the most important lesson he has learned over the course of his career is to "never give up...had I done that I would not have been able to do the things that I have. Of course, I have faced some situations that looked impossible, but in every case, there is always a way forward â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it just requires a deep-seated tenacity." Frank unwinds by going to the movies every week. "I find it a valuable way of relaxing and disengaging with my hectic business and social life. I went to the Oscars in Los Angeles, so that was a wonderful opportunity to indulge in my movie passion." And when he has a rare quiet moment, he likes to have music in the background "While I am relaxing, or thinking about my next project, I do have a particular appreciation for classical music, the range and styles can be so broad, and I never tire of listening to it." He has a particular passion for Japan: "It is impossible to leave not feeling enriched by its people, places and culture."

AFP PHOTO / ROSLAN RAHMAN

"Beyond the financial influence of the region, there is a tremendous creative potential that needs to be developed and explored, especially within the world of fashion."

As to his ambitions for the fashion publishing side of his business, he will continue to focus on a closer integration of media and content "Publishing in a digital and online format and platform is a vital aspect of the evolution of media, and there will be some very exciting initiatives in this respect going forwards." So what is the best part of Frank's job? "My life and career has provided an amazing opportunity to meet incredibly influential industry players whose vision and ideas have been a great source of inspiration and direction for me. In some cases, they have become mentors and provided valuable insight, which would have taken a lifetime to acquire any other way. Likewise, gaining access to some of the worlds most exciting and innovative businesses helps to develop my own ideas and concepts. It is certainly the most rewarding aspect of my job."

Clockwise from left: A model presents a creation by French designer Alexis Mabille during the French Couture 2012 Women's Fashion Week in Singapore on December 1, 2012; Cintamani poses with a model as he arrives to take part in the "fashion dinner against Aids" an event organized by Sidaction with French fashion federation to raise funds for the Aids research, on January 26, 2012 in Paris.

Issue 18, 2013

Lookout Qatar

Welcome to Maison Aspiration An increasing number of luxury brands are venturing into hotels. From fashion – Armani; jewelry – Bulgari; food – Nobu; and department store – Harrods. Alexandra Kohut-Cole says High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs)can now totally immerse themselves in the luxury lifestyle of their favorite brand.

There has been a noticeable revolution in the business of luxury concerning lifestyle consumerism, and the shift to diversification into hotels is leading the way. Lifestyle hotels catering specifically to high-net-worth individuals are being created by high-end luxury brands in partnership with luxury hotel groups and property operators. Hot on the heels of the rumored Armani Admiralty Arch Hotel in London, it seems a hotel is the next feather in the cap aspired to in the race to provide the ultimate luxury lifestyle. Developers are said to be considering Armani Hotels, among others, to take on this role. Admiralty Arch is a 1912 Grade I listed monument leading from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace and overlooks Whitehall.

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Giorgio Armani SpA partnered with UAE property developer Emaar to create the Armani flagship hotel in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which opened in 2010. Hotel Missoni, associated with the international group Rezidor, at last count has opened five lifestyle hotels, in Edinburgh, Kuwait, Oman, Brazil, Turkey, with another, Mauritius, due in 2014. And the famous French crystal company Baccarat (owned by the Starwood Capital Group) will launch the Baccarat New York Hotel in 2014 complete with a crystal bar. Italian fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo is also considering expanding into the hospitality sector in the Middle East. "We are not in real plans now but we are looking for

Francesco Trapani said: "Our dream is a Japanese person who gets married in a Bulgari Hotel, buys his spouse's gift in a Bulgari shop and spends the honeymoon in a Bulgari resort."

AFP PHOTO / GIUSEPPE CACACE

Leonardo Ferragamo sparked the trend of luxury brands venturing into hotels.

some locations... We are open to expanding," Giovanna Gentile Ferragamo, vice president of the fashion brand's holding company and the second of founder Salvatore Ferragamo's six children, said in an interview to a Dubai-based magazine. She added: "What we have done in hotels up until now, it is very much like small boutique hotels. I think in a place like [Dubai] you really need to do something on a larger, wider base. But we are looking to some possibilities." Jewelry-maker to the stars, Bulgari, partnered with Marriott Hotels to create the Bulgari Hotel in Bali in 2009, becoming the first jeweler to do so. The mere mention of a Bulgari hotel conjures an image of a vast jewel set in the ocean. There is also a Bulgari hotel in Milan, Bulgari restaurants in Tokyo and Osaka, and a Bulgari hotel is due to launch in Shanghai in 2015. The owners of the Cheval Blanc hotel in Courchevel, LVMH, are planning to expand the brand to Paris in 2016 in a re-development of La Samaritaine department store. Three others are in the design stage in the Maldives, Egypt and Oman. The fashion designer hotel concept is explored by Maria Meitern, partner at international boutique management advisory firm Luxury Movement: "While in the case of fashion brands with dedicated home collections, the diversification into hotels seemed more sensible as it would promote their products, for other brands such as Moschino or Maison Martin Margiela, hotels are more a design statement, aiming for increased awareness from a creative point of view". It is a trend fast gathering pace. So, in a sphere where the new is ever important, who did it first? Possibly it was the Ferragamo to spark the trend in 1995 when they first opened their first boutique hotel. They also launched the Gallery Hotel Art in Florence in 1999, a contemporary design hotel by architect Michele Bonan. "Entering the world of hospitality is very important to my family as it's very similar to the world of fashion, giving us the opportunity to create a different experience and lasting memories," Leonardo Ferragamo explains on the company website. Then in 2000 the Palazzo Versace was born, with the help of Sunland Group, on the Australian Gold Coast, home

The breathtakingly beautiful Bulgari Hotel in Bali

to Surfers' Paradise, adding another kind of paradise. The newbie on the block is Nobu, the global Japanese restaurant phenomenon. Nobu Hotel opened in January 2013 in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, and CNN named it the hottest new hotel of 2013. Nobu already has its sights set on Riyadh, London and Manama. And according to CPP Luxury, Harrods' new owner Qatar Holding is said to be all set to launch the first Harrods Hotel in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. So, does this diversification work? And if so, why and how? The venture will no doubt be aided by partnering with a similarly-placed high-end hotel chain with an exemplary record. But what do you get with a lifestyle hotel for your brand? Certainly a strong brand presence and hopefully brand loyalty with existing customers; as well as a novelty value there will be an intention of bringing increased brand awareness. But this can only work if the quality is not compromised. The philosophy behind fashion hotels can be well demonstrated in the words of Bulgari Goup CEO, Francesco Trapani who said, in 2001, "Our dream is a Japanese person who gets married in a Bulgari Hotel, buys his spouse's gift in a Bulgari shop and spends the honeymoon in a Bulgari resort." Projects are definitely buzz-generating. Furthermore, renowned couture houses have launched furniture and home accessories lines. Wouldn't it be safer to just stick to designing the furniture? Fendi Casa are set to design the interiors of luxury apartments in Dubai and Riyadh for Damac Properties as well as 100 serviced apartments in Riyadh ready for a 2016 opening. Bottega Veneta has created branded suites in St Regis Hotels in New York and Rome and one in the Park Hyatt Hotel Chicago. Diane Von Furstenberg has designed the 'Grand Piano Suite' at Claridges Hotel in London. The phenomenon, however, looks here to stay. Christian Lacroix has completed interior design work at several landmark hotels, including the Hotel Le Petit Moulin in Paris. Oscar de la Renta designed Tortuga Bay, a boutique hotel in the Dominican Republic, and Azzedine Alaia has converted a 17th-century building in the Marais into three exclusively designed suites in Paris. The luxury DNA is integral to the lavish lifestyle. A yearning to be a part of this way of life is what these fashion and luxury brand hotels cater to. The guests can be immersed in the experience and their desire for the ultimate luxury is complete.

Issue 18, 2013

Lookout Qatar

Beyond the Basic Design Days Dubai brings a new dimension to Art Dubai with collectable art pieces that could be functional too... By Sindhu Nair

Clockwise from top: CWG Studio job - Eiffel Tower; Cyril Zammit posing for T Qatar at Katara Art center where Carwan Gallery made a presentation; Victor Hunt presentation for Design Days Dubai

When a country’s art scene matures, it is the perfect time to start hosting design fairs. After six successful years of hosting Art Dubai, the stage was set for Design Days Dubai, an art festival that looks beyond the functionalities of design and ventures into collectable limited edition pieces. In its second year, Design Days Dubai is already popular, according to the fair’s director, Cyril Zammit. He has all the figures and facts at his fingertips as he tells TQatar all about the event, which will bring loads of talent to the emirate from March 18 – 21, 2013. “Art Dubai has established Dubai as a key player in the region, with 75 galleries and 70 museum groups attending,” he says. “Hosting Design Days Dubai makes Dubai one of the few cities to host both an art and a design fair. The other cities which host these design fairs are New York, Paris, Basel and Miami.” Cyril was in Doha as part of the launch of

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“Contemporary Perspectives in Middle Eastern Crafts” by Carwan Gallery at Katara Art Center. The exhibition featured a collection of works commissioned by Carwan Gallery, from international and regional designers working in collaboration with Middle Eastern artisans and craftspeople. Carwan Gallery was part of Design Days Dubai in 2012 and will be participating again, this time with its new collectibles. Talking about the success of Design Days Dubai in the first year, Cyril casually drops the sales figures. He says, “We had an estimated sale of QR13 million ($3.5 million), which was interesting,” He underplays the figure as he continues: “The purpose of the fair was just to open the doors.” With 22 galleries and a new concept introduced, the doors are undoubtedly open to usher in change for the design fraternities. A change that could also affect consumers who have been used to “design as an end

“From my experience, the people in the region want to be surprised. They love to see new materials"

product”, and will now look forward to “design as an art piece”. This year is bigger, Cyril says, with seven more galleries added to the fair, bringing the total to 29. “It is the only fair in the world that brings together design galleries from six continents. That’s why we call ourselves a ‘diverse design fair’,” says Cyril. “New galleries from Australia, Mexico and even from India with products that signify their individuality will be joining the fair.” How does Cyril handpick the galleries to make sure they appeal to the “diverse design fair” and the “refined” Dubai consumer? “I travel the world,” he says. “My friends call me the cabin crew. “Dubai is a highly complicated market with diverse nationalities. It is an emerging market. Some people have a high understanding of the art market, while others have less. Some have the means to collect art objects, while others would just like to broaden their knowledge. So, keeping in mind this diverse group, we have to mix everything together. 80% of the galleries are contemporary while 20% is modern and some classic.” Cyril feels that the community here is looking ahead, keeping in tune with the ‘new city’ image. They are looking towards the future – hence an emphasis on contemporary art at Design Days Dubai this year. “From my experience, the people in the region want to be surprised,” he says. “They love to see new materials.

The ‘wow’ factor keeps them coming for more. But we also cater to those nationalities coming from a mature art market with an accent on classics.” The European and Lebanese design fair have a reputation for classics, while Design Dubai has a contemporary approach. This distinguishes it from the rest, says Cyril. Carwan Gallery’s products and associations make it one of a kind. “Last year was the first for Carwan, and they have been doing quite well. They will soon be represented to the design fairs in Basel and Miami,” he says. A clock chiseled in all corners with a hidden cupboard behind the clock, a curtain that explores workmanship detailing, a table that is part wood and part rope, and a wooden mat are products of Carwan Gallery that are exhibited at Katara. “The mashrabiyya piece by Austrian designers Mischer’traxler shows the story of how pieces of solid wood can transform into the intricate patterns of the mashrabiyya [a woodwork window or screen of traditional Arab architecture], allowing the designers to speak a new language and the artisans to engage in

Issue 18, 2013

Clockwise from top: Industry Gallery, work of Mathias Bengtsson, cellular chair; chair by Vedova Allegra; bowl by Victor Hunt; designer storage from Carwan gallery

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"Designers learn from the artisans’ skills and style, and the artisans learn how to develop new approaches to their traditional work in ways that are interesting to them, and to the market."

complex innovation and new techniques,” explains Carwan Gallery co-founder Nicolas BellavanceLecompte. “Through this collaboration, designers learn from the artisans’ skills and style, and the artisans learn how to develop new approaches to their traditional work in ways that are interesting to them, and to the market. It’s really a win-win situation for both sides involved.” The fair has 135 different designers from six continents, 650 pieces on site and 29 galleries of which nine are from the Middle East, “which is a great number and double last year’s,”says Cyril, explaining the statistics. Cyril is a tense man as he waits for confirmation on the safe transportation and arrival of the expensive designer pieces at the venue, all of which will occupy a 3,600 square-meter tent outside Burj Khalifa. “From the magnificent work of bronze by Studio Job for Carpenters Workshop Gallery, to the purest lines of Choi Byung-Hoon from Gallery Seomi, each part of the world translates its history and tradition into these great objects. Prestigious and exquisite

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materials are always popular like the marble bench by Rick Owens, or the lamp in crystal from Czech Republic by David Wiseman,” says Cyril as he takes me through the pieces that will adorn the site: a huge wall panel with London Street depicted, called “Remembering Nice Bridge”, a hand-made boiled leather piece, which is also one of the cheapest pieces available, at $2,500, by Simone Hassan, a chair with a fur-like finish, which is really 20,000 toothpicks all hand-painted...

Clockwise from top: Table by Giselle; wall detailing from Carwan Gallery; Taj Mahal table by Carpenters Work; detailing of wooden work on a table designed by Carwan gallery

Lookout Qatar

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a Lomoholic! Lebanese photographer Maher Attar's work has appeared in GĂŠo Paris Match, Life, Time and Newsweek; he is also a personal royal photographer, veteran war correspondent, Digigrapher, Sax player and book publisher who founded his own agency in Paris. He talks to Alexandra Kohut-Cole about his latest solo exhibition at Anima Gallery on The Pearl.

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"People sometimes have difficulty working with me because I go into the detail on every single thing"

Still on a Land in Motion", a solo exhibition of recent work by Maher Attar, is important to him for many reasons. Not least that he will be celebrating his 50th birthday as well as 30 years of being in his profession. With this exhibition, Attar wanted to mix the old with the new, so the past is brought to the present by way of cultural evolution with a lomographic camera. He calls this a "fake past" and explains that he is writing history his way, documenting the charm of Qatar. "I want to give this a nostalgic and artistic touch," he explains. Attar is a self-confessed perfectionist. "People sometimes have difficulty working with me because I go into detail on every single thing. When I print, for example, and even for this exhibition, some of the prints I repeated ten or fifteen times. It has to be more than perfect. Photography for me is not just a single, simple click." He takes pains to explain that he is not fighting against technology. "Technology, I think, brought up everything and for everyone". Attar charmingly describes being on a "Lomo Mission". Each exhibit has been shot with his lomographic camera, for which he clearly has a passion. "I am a lomoholic," he says. "In the nineties in Austria they produced a new machine, a very simple camera. It was a very cheap QR130 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 735 ($35-200) camera with a plastic lens, one speed, one diaphragm, and the finger decides the speed of the shutter." He explains that the cameras are temperamental and that he uses them with expired film. "I always use the one designed in Russia, made in China called 'Olga'." This suits his style as having lived in Paris for well on twenty years, Attar confesses to having "an oriental heart and a Western mentality, like a double identity or culture â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you have to have a mix". Attar's early mentors were the veteran war reporters he would listen to while working with them as the youngest of them at 19. "I was inspired in Lebanon during the war. All the big war photographers were there, but they have all died now." Two of these big names were Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams and the first female photographer to win

the World Press Photo of the Year award, Francoise Demulder. This was the early eighties and the last big war, Vietnam, had ended in 1973. During this time, Attar himself nearly died; in fact the doctor did not expect him to reach hospital. A bullet had entered his face below his eye and came out through the back of his head. Only a tiny scar on his cheek marks the occasion. He also lost a chunk of his calf that a bullet ripped out. But Attar describes himself in those days as "a freelancer looking for something to sell. It was 1983, I was excited as a young photographer looking for a scoop, a good catch of the day, good hunting!" Which brings us back to Anima Gallery to focus on a great example of "a good catch of the day" in the black and white image of a man and woman sitting in harmony gazing out to sea. "This was taken in December 2009, on the Corniche, on National Day. Imagine how many people were there and how hard it was to get just two people? I think then I was forcing myself to do a shot but then I saw this shot, I took it

Clockwise from left: Images of Doha,capturing the past and present in lomo; Attar's solo exhibition at the Anima Gallery

Issue 18, 2013

Lookout Qatar

"You have the different mentality, different vision and culture, I am not saying good or bad, but it's a good experience even if you do the opposite and go from here to Paris. But for me, oh, leaving Paris..."

and went home! The irony of this powerful image is that it is a young Qatari couple. A Westerner will view it as incongruous because you incredibly rarely see this with a Qatari couple but with Westerners all the time.” Attar’s love of his lomo camera flies in the face of the modern digital photographic aesthetic whereby “everyone is a photographer”, the skill is taken away and the whole thing is diluted. “The lomography camera grapples with lack of focus, poor exposure, inaccurate colors. And you wait for your image.” By this he means that he sends all his photographs to be developed in Paris. This takes time, so he might have forgotten about an image until it comes back to him. Which is exactly what happened with another image in his exhibition, that of a series of ghutras hanging with the agals on a staggered hook arrangement. “This was taken at the entrance of the mosque. They were washing before prayer and then I saw the image like the Olympic rings. I took two frames, one was with flash, and that is the one I used. Six months later I developed the film, I had forgotten about it! Using lomo is like creating something from nothing”. In this image, one agal has a long ‘tail’ to which the eye is drawn. This marks it out as Qatari. “This is how you can tell it is a Qatari agal; they are the only Arab nation to wear this style.” Attar came to Doha from Paris, “the capital of photography”, so does he miss the French capital?

“You have the different mentality, different vision and culture, I am not saying good or bad, but it’s a good experience even if you do the opposite – and go from here to Paris. But for me, oh, leaving Paris...” When he left in 2006 he was working on his book Once Upon a Time ... Souk Waqif in which he captures the mystery and the spirit of the old Doha market. The book is partially in lomo. Attar added a few of these images as a precursor to producing a book entirely of lomo photographs. He was simultaneously working on another book in Paris during this time; with a completely different subject matter – focusing on backstage at the Lido. “I spent three years on it, it’s one of my favorite. It was interesting at that time to work with the dancers. I was trying to find a view on the profession that is an art.” Some of the girls were studying architecture or medicine. “The most important thing was that these girls when they used to go on stage they were wearing the light, they wear the light” like a veil? “Exactly. They don’t see the people, this light covered them and for me ..,. this is why I decided to do this book”. He called it Bonheur – Happiness. The day job for Attar is director of the photo library at the office of HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, wife of the Emir, HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, which he cannot discuss in detail for obvious reasons. However, during the past year he became heavily involved in ROTA (Reach Out to Asia) including a program designed to teach children from Asian countries the joys and techniques of photography. “We published a book 100% by these kids. Some of them held a camera for the first time in their lives...” When he wakes in the morning he wants to leave something behind “because I saw death.” If his work is appreciated, he is happy. “An idea doesn’t always work, but the assistant or public might like it even if I don’t!” Therapy for Attar is a Harley-Davidson “Sometimes I go to the desert on my Harley, I take my camera and I try to get the photo of the day – have a good catch!”

Sub Section

Section

Objects

Subverted Classics Some of fashion’s most iconic and feminine staples demure heels, delicate pearls, evening clutches have been tweaked for a sexy twist.

Styled by catherine newell-hanson. market editor: dania ortiz. prop Stylist: Victoria Petro Conroy.

Photographs by Elena REDINA

The Mod Kitten Heel Clockwise from top: Louis Vuitton shoe, QR 3,145; louisvuitton.com. Dries Van Noten shoe, QR 2,500; saks.com. Oscar de la Renta shoe, QR 2,550; (212) 288-5810. Marc Jacobs shoe, 2,185; marcjacobs.com.

Issue 18, 2013

Objects

Surreal Jewels From top: Solange Azagury-Partridge ring, QR 34,520; (212)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;879-9100. Delfina Delettrez earring, QR 3,600; openingceremony.us. Ralph Lauren Fine Watchmaking watch, QR 110,175; ralphlaurenwatches.com. Cartier watch, QR 84,100; cartier.com. James de Givenchy for Taffin ring, QR 183,625.

T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

styled by Cristina Holmes. market editor: edward barsamian. models: Eleanor Hayes and elle trowbridge/select models. manicure by trish lomax at premierhairandmakeup.com.

Quality

styled by Cristina Holmes. Market editor: dania ortiz.

Quality

Objects

Luxe Varsity Jackets Clockwise from top left: Just Cavalli jacket, QR 3,745; saks.com. Junya Watanabe Comme des GarĂ§ons sneaker, QR 4,240; (212)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;604-0200. Reed Krakoff jacket, QR 6,205; reedkrakoff.com. Burberry Prorsum jacket, QR 5,490; burberry.com.

Issue 18, 2013

Objects

The Grecian Sandal boot Bottega Veneta dress (on both), QR 51,415, and belt, QR 1,910; bottegaveneta.com. Ancient Greek Sandals for Marios Schwab shoes (left), QR 2,165; bergdorfgoodman.com. Chanel sandals, QR 7,990; (800)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;550-0005.

T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

styled by catherine newell-hanson. market editor: dania ortiz. Prop Stylist: Victoria Petro Conroy. MODELS: Jessica Russ/elite and Issac/marilyn. MAKEUP by Anthea King using Dermalogica at See Management. MANICURE by Megumi Yamamoto for essie.

Quality

styled by catherine newell-hanson. market editor: dania ortiz. Prop Stylist: Victoria Petro Conroy.

Objects

Quality

Clear Accents Top row, from left: Chanel bracelet, QR 5,235; (800) 550-0005. Valentino clutch, QR 13,570; valentino.com. Middle row (clockwise from top): Michael Kors bracelet, QR 1,010; (866) 709-5677. Gucci clutch, QR 4,225; gucci.com. Valentino bracelet, QR 3,655. Chanel bracelet, QR 7,070. Bottom row, from left: Michael Kors shoe, QR 2,020. Patricia von Musulin bracelet, QR 5,970; Bergdorf Goodman, (888) 774-2424. Chanel bracelet, QR 3,490. Charlotte Olympia clutch, QR 6,225; boydsphila.com. Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci shoe, QR 10,835; barneys.com.

Issue 18, 2013

Quality

Blank canvas A model backstage at the Isabel Marant spring runway show.

On Beauty

The Naked Face Achieving the new natural look requires a specific arsenal of nearly-there makeup. A primer on minimalism.

Does anyone remember Way Bandy? It’s been more than three decades since the publication of his best-selling book, ‘‘Designing Your Face,’’ and more than two decades since he died in 1986 at age 45. Bandy, who, from the early 1970s on, worked on the faces of models and celebrities — everyone from Cheryl Tiegs to Cher — was the first maestro of maquillage. In an age before Pat McGrath and Bobbi Brown, before the invention of the superstar makeup artist (Kevyn Aucoin worshiped him), Bandy was paid thousands an hour and flown far and wide for his skills with applying pigment. He did so in such a way that the personality of the woman was felt to come through, enhanced by his touch — although he was also known for his ability to transform a woman’s face entirely, when the occasion called for it. To this day I cannot look in the mirror to apply makeup without thinking of the detailed, almost scientific directives that filled his book — as fascinating to read as they were impossible to reproduce. In my memory, foundation alone required mixing together four or five ingredients. Recently I ordered a ravaged, out-of-print copy of his book, just to see if I was exaggerating Bandy’s techniques. There, sure enough, were the simple blackand-white line drawings by Bandy, just as I recalled them; there, too, were the baroque recipes for combining ‘‘nickel’’- and ‘‘pea’’-size amounts of different liquids and lotions to create foundation, and ‘‘three tiny dabs’’ of different colors to create the right shade of lipstick. What I hadn’t remembered, though, and which I came upon with surprise, was this piece of advice tucked away in Bandy’s introduction: ‘‘The face designs given here are timeless and ageless. . . . Use as many or as few of these cosmetic techniques as you feel comfortable with. Generally speaking, as one gets older, less is more.’’

T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

Less is more? Here I had been thinking of Bandy as a creator of intricately painted, precisely contoured visages, the opposite of what I considered to be the relatively recent push toward a new minimalism in makeup, exemplified by the sort of glowing, nearly-bare faces one saw coming down the runway at the spring fashion shows of designers like Jil Sander, Isabel Marant, Stella McCartney and Proenza Schouler. Clearly, minimalism — of a sophisticated, sleight-of-hand sort — has always been around as an option, just as exaggerated makeup has always been part of the fashion story. Sandy Linter, a makeup artist for Lancôme who did her first Vogue cover in 1974 and appears to carry around a visual archive of cosmetic trends in her head, remembers 1988-89 as a ‘‘nothing look,’’ adding, ‘‘I had to survive that.’’ She also recalls Aucoin doing a ‘‘minimalist look’’ on Demi Moore in the mid-’80s, which instantly became ‘‘hot.’’ Both styles of makeup have always existed side by side, but what seems different right now

is that, set against the heavily made-up faces of reality-TV stars like Kim Kardashian and actresses like Jennifer Lopez, a more nude face seems like something of a rediscovery, a return to an off-camera, everyday realism. This is partly due to advances in cosmetic formulations, as Tina Turnbow, a makeup artist known for her understated approach, points out: ‘‘The technology has evolved so you can achieve a seemingly flawless complexion using less makeup or undetectable makeup. I don’t want to see shading and striping in person.’’ She adds that ‘‘having good skin and skin-care products is more important and desirable than piling on makeup.’’ Terry de Gunzburg, the founder of By Terry, a high-end line of skin care and cosmetics that feature light-reflecting ingredients, agrees: ‘‘You cannot ask the average woman to be a makeup artist every day of her life. The products have to compensate for nonability.’’ Of course, there will always be women who want to use makeup as camouflage or,

Nina Westervelt

By DAPHNE MERKIN

Sub Section

Face Forward Clockwise from right: Models backstage at Balmain; Chantecaille Just Skin tinted moisturizer; Laura Mercier Radiance foundation primer; Yves Saint Laurent Touché Eclat concealer; By Terry Touche Veloutée concealer brush; a model at Bottega Veneta; Nars Velvet Matte ‘‘Damned’’ lip pencil; Clinique Chubby Stick ‘‘Graped Up’’ lip balm. Go to tmagazine.com to watch Tina Turnbow do a how-to on the naked face.

‘You cannot ask the average woman to be a makeup artist every day of her life. The products have to compensate for nonability.’

Laura Mercier’s Radiance. Once you’ve got your base down, be it a tinted moisturizer or a more substantial foundation applied sparingly, the checklist is fairly unintimidating: concealer, to be applied only where needed after foundation, when you’re less likely to overdo it. (Although I consider myself relatively makeup-savvy, I tend to get this step wrong. Just the other day I merrily told a friend who called me with two new concealers on hand and the urgent question of which to put on first, foundation or concealer, that she should begin with concealer.) I’ve found that By Terry’s Touche Veloutée concealer works well at banishing shadows, although Clé de Peau Beauté’s concealer is forever being cited on lists of favorite beauty products. After this, the only essentials are mascara; chocolate-brown liner, which is less harsh than black; a smidgen of blush (Linter likes Kevyn Aucoin’s cream blush while Turnbow recommends Maybelline’s Dream Bouncy powdery cream); and a crowning dab of lipstick. (It turns out that blush isn’t mandatory, although most of us think it is. Only certain faces have the structure to benefit

from blush. Women with round faces can often go without.) You were wondering, perhaps, about lip liner? While you weren’t looking, this onceubiquitous item appears to have been consigned to the dust bin of cosmetic history. Linter declares categorically that it ‘‘went out of fashion because it was so abused.’’ (Tom Ford, let it be noted, refuses to include a lip liner in his line.) De Gunzburg believes red or hot pink lipstick is a crucial accessory, but not everyone agrees. Turnbow likes bright color for making a statement but when paired with a harsh liner thinks it can be aging. She suggests using stains and tints, like Clinique’s Chubby Sticks, and when more color is called for, is partial to outlining the lips and then filling them in with a chunky pencil. Nars’s Red Square is a favorite for a velvet finish she describes as ‘‘French.’’ French women never wear glossy reds, apparently. So there you have it. The truth, it seems, is not so much that ‘‘less is more’’ as that ‘‘more is less.’’ The new minimalism means that you can layer on products, if they’re the right texture and you know how to do it artfully enough. The objective is to let your skin show through and to look like a flattering version of yourself. But, wait! Have I mentioned eyelash curler? Brow pencil? Way Bandy, where are you when we need you? Issue 18, 2013

still lifes: stan wan; Balmain: Nina Westervelt; Bottega Veneta: go runway.

as de Gunzburg wryly puts it, as ‘‘a contemporary art installation.’’ De Gunzburg, who has thought long and hard about the business of beauty — first as the creative director of YSL Beauté for 15 years, where she dreamed up its iconic Touche Éclat, among other products, and then as head of her own company — has decided views regarding the future of cosmetics. Talking by phone from London, which she calls home along with Paris, de Gunzburg is at pains to describe what she sees as ‘‘the colorless makeup, no-foundation foundation’’ trend that defines the new minimalism. Although she characterizes the look as effortless, she points out that, in fact, it requires a certain amount of work and, perhaps most important, the right products to emphasize color correction. De Gunzburg believes, for one thing, that American women use too much coverage, favoring ‘‘yellow foundation,’’ which ‘‘makes you look old.’’ Instead she advises, as do many makeup mavens, that women opt for some sort of tinted moisturizer; she recommends her own Hyaluronic Face Glow, which is hydrating while providing a sheer matte finish. (Linter’s go-to is Lancôme’s Rénergie Éclat Multi-Lift, while Turnbow’s is Chantecaille’s Just Skin tinted moisturizer.) But wait, you must be thinking, what about the all-important primer we’ve been reading so much about these past few years, outdone of late only by the folderol over ‘‘BB creams’’ (allin-one balms that provide primer, moisturizer, sunblock and coverage)? Turns out that Linter doesn’t much believe in primers: ‘‘I don’t see it and I like stuff I can see. I use it more for problem skins.’’ Turnbow, who does, favors

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In Fashion

Touch of Color A discreet pop of tomato red, tangerine or pale blush gives everyday monochromatic dressing a graphic lift. Photographs by Benjamin alexander huseby styled By vanessa traina

Sportmax top, QR 2,810; (212)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;674-1817. Preen by Thornton Bregazzi skirt, QR 5,680; net-a-porter. com. Miu Miu sandals (worn throughout), QR 2,550; miumiu.com. J.â&#x20AC;&#x2030;W. Anderson necklace, QR 1,415; openingceremony.us.

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Quality

J. Crew top, QR 145; jcrew.com. Reed Krakoff skirt, QR 4,370; reedkrakoff.com. HermĂ¨s bracelet, price on request; hermes.com.

Issue 18, 2013

Quality

In Fashion

J.â&#x20AC;&#x2030;W. Anderson top, QR 2,405; opening ceremony.us. CĂŠline pants, QR 4,040; neimanmarcus. com. Bottega Veneta bracelet, QR 11,385; bottegaveneta.com.

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In Fashion

Quality

Stella McCartney top, QR 2,790, and dress, QR 14,230; bergdorf goodman.com. Bottega Veneta ring, QR 2,425. Model: Irina Nikolaeva. Hair by James Pecis at D+V Management. Makeup by Maki Ryoke for Tim Howard Management. Manicure by Kiyo Okada at Garren New York for Chanel BeautĂŠ. Set design by Matt Jackson. Styling assistant: Alexa Lanza.

Issue 18, 2013

The Moment

Grace Notes Ladylike elegance feels provocatively alluring right now. Photographs by julia hetta styled by hannes hetta

A Collared Neck Dior jacket, QR 13,220, and scarf, QR 2,460; (800)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;929-3467.

Issue 18, 2013

Arena

The Moment

A Transparent Blouse Valentino top, QR 5,104, and skirt, QR 22,000; nordstrom.com. Myla bra, QR 532; myla.com.

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A Feminine Leg Marc Jacobs skirt, QR 3,655; marcjacobs.com. Miu Miu shoes, QR 2,110; miumiu.com. Wolford tights, QR 605; wolford.com.

Issue 18, 2013

Arena

The Moment

A Handful of Gold Rings Balenciaga by Nicolas GhesquiĂ¨re rings, QR 2,810, and top, QR 21,225; (212)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;206-0872. Repossi ring (on right hand little finger), about QR 7,200; net-a-porter.com.

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Fashion editor: Vanessa Traina. Models: Kamila Filipcikova/IMG and Kriss/IMG. Makeup by Ayami Nishimura at Julian Watson. Hair by Ali Pirzadeh at CLM using Bumble and Bumble. Manicure by Vernice and Ange Walker at Carol Hayes Management using Rococo Nail Apparel. Set design by Andrea Cellerino/Magnet.

A Loose, Messy Braid CĂŠline dress, QR 11,935. (212)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;535-3703.

Issue 18, 2013

Arena

By Design

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Being Michael Cinco

Radical and unapologetically flamboyant, Dubaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renowned couturier Michael Cinco reveals why the Middle East luxury fashion cognoscenti continue to intrigue him.

By Priyanka Pradhan

Issue 18, 2013

Arena

By Design

Michael Cinco as a guest designer on a TV show, America’s Next Top Model; international fashion shows, magazine covers with celebrity Sofia Vergara wearing a Cinco creation

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is self-effacing demeanor may throw you off, but Michael Cinco is every bit the grandiose designer, well known not just for wearing his signature sunglasses at all times but also for his extravagant wedding couture and awe-inspiring evening gowns. Even his office gets his signature design with a pristine all-white door, replete with crystal embellished furniture and long-stemmed white roses. The man does know how to woo. And the ladies are falling in line. Celebrities from Tyra Banks and Lady Gaga to Naomi Campbell and Sofia Vergara are known to swear by Cinco’s ingenuity. In fact he was taken completely by surprise when actress Sofia Vergara picked his black evening gown for the Golden Globe Awards ceremony in January 2013, out of the scores of designer dresses that came for her. “The dress was a sample and did not even fit her! And yet she insisted on wearing it, so it had to be reworked and tailored to fit. It was so unexpected and became a huge red-carpet hit!” he says excitedly. This child-like enthusiasm and passion for couture comes from a deep love of the opera and classic Hollywood movies, he says. “I grew up in a small town, away from the city, in rustic Philippines, and there were not many pastime activities, apart from watching black-and-white classic Hollywood movies. I’d watch these movies to observe Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn and the clothes they wore. I was so in love with them! I was only six or seven when I started to admire the couture dresses seen in the movies and just knew I’d be a designer some day.” After graduating from a fine arts school and working in the Philippines as a designer for a few years, Cinco chanced upon the opportunity to work to Dubai

"Women in the Middle East are like no others when it comes to fashion. I have never seen women who are more demanding, exacting, particular about design, than here in the Middle East."

in 1997. But things were not as smooth as he expected, and there was some learning and unlearning to do in the new market. “When I first came to Dubai, it was during the economic boom,” he says. “People were inspired by fashion in Europe but the aesthetic was very different here. Wedding dresses would weigh tens of kilos with heavy crystals and embellishments and were very overwhelming. It was a completely different scenario for me and I had to learn to adapt to the Middle East consumer. However, I saw a slow evolution of style and aesthetic, as women started getting more aware and refined in fashion, with their travel schedules abroad and frequent shopping excursions to Paris, Milan, etc. They started opting for more minimal, lighter, and more sleek and elegant looks, fabrics and designs. That’s the crucial change that has come about in the Middle East couture market.” After a break in his career and a stint at Central Saint Martins College in London, he made a comeback in the Middle East with the launch of his own fashion house, Michael Cinco Couture. Even after his European stint, Cinco says the intrigue of Middle East couture brought him back. “Women in the Middle East are like no others when it comes to fashion. I have never seen women who are more demanding, exacting, particular about design, than here in the Middle East. They really challenge your mind, your ideas and your capabilities and, in turn, expand the creative horizons of the designer. One has to travel with them into their fantasy world and sometimes one ends up telling an idiosyncratic story of fashion through them. The designs for couture consumers here not only have to be trendy and up to date, but also very, very unique – out of the world, never seen before and yet wearable. And that’s the challenge!” He continues: “The economic crisis in 2008 turned out to be favorable for local UAE-based designers because the couture consumers, who previously got all their designer ensembles

from Europe and other parts of the world, turned to Dubai for a more economical option. That was our foot in the door, luckily for me. My clients who came to me then have never left ever since!” But apart from his exhaustive client base in the Middle East, Cinco sees a cult following in Russia and even China. Demand is also pouring in from the US, but he’s taking it slow at the moment. “The issue with the American market is that pricing has to be lower, in accordance with the economy there at the moment. Also the design aesthetic is different there, but Russia is more profitable right now. I do get calls from LA, Canada and New York, even from Brazil, but I’m currently in the process of building a solid base to set up a global business and cater to the American and European markets later this year.” He recently worked with celebrity singer Britney Spears on an ensemble for the music video she made with will.i.am, “Scream and Shout”. His eco-friendly designs showcased on the US-based reality TV show “America’s Next Top Model” in 2011 received rave reviews, prompting recurrent guest appearances on the show. Late last year, he was also involved in the panAsian version of the reality show “Asia’s Next Top Model”, as guest designer and mentor. Currently in the midst of preparations for his show at LA Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2013, Cinco is seen dividing his time between preparing for upcoming fashion shows abroad and at home, and working on the launch of his perfume, “Impalpable”, in Dubai. With so much on his plate for the year ahead, he lets off steam by traveling and watching movies at home. “I also love watching YouTube videos of my favorite opera singer, Maria Callas, who also happens to be my ultimate inspiration. Apart from that, it’s just staying in and relaxing with friends... and no, I don’t sleep with my sunglasses on,” he says, smiling.

Issue 18, 2013

Arena

Travel Diary

By Rhodri Davies

hile Mohammed Alberaidi’s life may not have a singular focus, he is single-minded. He starts his day at around 4:30 a.m., and “first thing, I come here to see the camels, to see the workers and if they are taking good care of the camels. I go with the camels and workers to the track to see the training and so on. Then I go to work and after work I come back. Then we sit and friends come and we chat about the camels and how they’re doing,” he says. The 38-year-old owns ten camels for racing – a return to the course of his Bedouin traditions that’s increasingly big business in modern Qatar. The last camel Alberaidi bought was in Oman for QR80,000, and he’s sold them for millions. As nighttime turns to dawn, the legal manager at a media company and two of his three sons prepare one from their herd for a race. Thayara is given tepid water – it’s all she’ll drink, fearing a cold-contaminated variety – and no food, to keep her light. There’s prestige and prizes on offer. At the Shahania track, a 20-minute drive from the capital, pictures of the Emir and the Heir Apparent garnish the entrance. Theirs are the most important races. The Emir’s competition, at the end of the September to March season, has a kitty worth QR85 million in money, swords and luxury cars. Alberaidi’s knowledge of camels comes mostly from his eldest brother, Jabir, and from their parents. Their father was born in 1929 into a nomadic tribe. Alberaidi explains: “All day they would take good care of the camels, doing everything for them, because in return the animals would take care of them. This was the source of living.” The animals were used for their milk – up to eleven liters a day to drink and make by-products – meat, skin for bags and clothes and manure for fuel, for their dowries and currency to solve conflicts. They provided transport during seasonal migrations to find sustenance. A camel’s ability to go without water for several days was crucial to the Bedouin traveling a minimum of 1,900 kilometers annually, often much more. A clan with two to 10 children would have five to 70 camels, with boys often herding them. Living for 40 to 50 years, camels were tradable. “If you bought a camel you had something like gold,” Alberaidi says. “It would not lose value. On the contrary, you could increase your assets.” Salah Ali, another camel owner, saw the ashes of that existence as the Bedouin were being tempted into sedentary lives by government jobs, free housing, better education and healthcare. Then, owners raced camels against each other at celebrations such as weddings and Eid. “I was very little when I saw that,” Ali, 53, says. “And it was so beautiful. Everyone in the house was so excited. Because each family saw his father riding the camels and was shouting for him to win. It’s a really good memory.” The motorcar and national borders were two significant modifiers of the Bedouin way of life. By the 1980s interest

racing to modernity Camel racing may now be big business but its Bedouin roots endure

Issue 18, 2013

Arena

Travel Diary

Top: The scene before the camel race. Middle: Saleh Ali has seen the effect of change in the country. Below: Mohammed Alberaidi is another camel owner who has kept his passion alive.

had waned as people made little return from caring for the animal. But the government under HH The Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani subsequently revived the sport as an aspect of nationalism and protected it in the face of modernization. It built the Shahania track in 1990 and added training routes, television facilities and, last Ramadan, floodlights for nighttime events. “A lot of support was given to this sport to maintain it, and tell the new generations about it,” Mubarak Hamed Al-Shahwani, deputy head of the Camel Racing Organizing Committee, says. “It was supported financially and by good organizers.” Development of the elapsed sport allowed it to become a pastime for the rich and commerce for the entrepreneurial – particularly as wealth from national gas revenues arrived in the late ’90s. Any GCC resident can now enter the region’s races, and camel trading and auctions are constant. Thayara – the Bedouin word for airplane – will race 6 km in the six-year-old female category. Competitions have races by age group, from one to seven years, and gender. Thayara is beyond the typical racer’s peak of four years. Each age category is given a Bedouin name, relating to the camel’s maturity – two years is ‘mafrud’, meaning ‘become independent’, being the age a calf leaves its mother. Before Thayara is led to the starting gate, an official checks her ID card and scans a serial number implanted underneath her skin. Only the race’s top three finishers will

T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

be drug-tested. Alberaidi ties the electronic jockey to her. It’s the most important part of the pre-competition – if it falls she’ll be disqualified and could be hurt. Electronic jockeys have replaced boys, who were mostly from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, used until the practice was internationally condemned as a human rights abuse and outlawed in 2005. The owners are happier with it that way, and the automatic jockeys are lighter, meaning fewer injuries for the camels. The robot’s duct-taped whip is voice-activated via a radio transmitter, and covered in Alberaidi’s sporting best of white with light blue dots, so it won’t be left adrift. Nose-rubbing, smoking and socializing men populate the sandy sides of the track before jumping into dozens of SUVs to follow the camels’ gallop around the course. Alberaidi is hopeful for a fifth position, but says he’s nervous as Thayara could produce a surprise. He pushes short bursts of air, and longer shouts, through the radio transmitter as his sons, Abdel Hadi and Jabir, sit beside him. Jabir, 16, is inclined to his father’s passion. He says he spends all his free time with the camels: “Camels are my favorite animal. I was raised here between them. And as long as you give to camels they will give back to you.” Jabir is given control of the transmitter in the final furlongs as Thayara struggles to keep pace. His namesake uncle, more than 30 years his senior, later explains that this is how new generations are conscripted. “It’s inside him or her. You see who is interested and we give them responsibilities, for example guiding in the race, because we see that he will be something in this sport.” Thayara comes thirteenth of 16, but Alberaidi is not discouraged. The family eats breakfast, before practice for one kilometer for Thayara. Camels exercise every day, and train about every five days. However, most camel owners keep their techniques secret. Alberaidi and Thayara return to the stables. Alberaidi keeps some camels just for breeding, and is now looking to the off-season, when his older camels will be rested and his younger ones prepped for racing or sale. He says last year he sold one camel for QR5 million, making it a viable business in itself. The Camel Racing Organization is planning further ahead, conceiving new tracks and industry expansion. In any case, Alberaidi says man’s connection with the animal will remain sacrosanct. “If we lose the gas, the satellites and religion, we will return to the primitive life with camels,” he says. “So the camel will be everything again.”

from top: karim sadli; Henry Bourne; François Halard.

The Real lee �adziWill a

While she has long captivated the public as one of Truman Capote’s swans, the sister of Jackie Kennedy and a European princess, with romantic liaisons from Peter Beard to Aristotle Onassis, not one of those labels begins to capture the true woman. The inimitable Radziwill direct, free spirited and true to her own ideals offers a rare, personal glimpse into her remarkable world.

by nicky haslam inTERiOR PhOTOgRaPhs by FRançOis halaRd sTylEd by caROlina iRVing

‘‘OO---h. YOu’re here alreadY!’’ The voice, lively,

with its unmistakable husky drop, comes in to the living room. I turn from the balcony that looks out onto the avenue Montaigne. ‘‘Oo---h’’ — again, that low last note — ‘‘how did you get here so quickly?’’ Framed in the evening light, between double doors, is a figure slight as swan’s-down, a silhouette in dark, skinny armani pants and a silk T-shirt. The hair, cut for over half a century by the experts on two, at least, continents, is now a sleek chignon, blond, perhaps, with the light around it, darker as she moves toward me. I explain that the eurostar now has a service where you order a taxi on the train and, hey, presto! at the Gare du Nord, there is a driver, bearing your name. ‘‘really? I didn’t know that. I must go to london more often. I know, I should, but I am so, so happy in this

Issue 18, 2013

Room with a View Lee Radziwill in the living room of her apartment in Paris, which she designed herself.

T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

by nicky haslam INTERIOR Photographs by François Halard STYLED BY CAROLINA IRVING

‘‘Oo---h. You’re here already!’’ The voice, lively,

with its unmistakable husky drop, comes in to the living room. I turn from the balcony that looks out onto the Avenue Montaigne. ‘‘Oo---h’’ — again, that low last note — ‘‘how did you get here so quickly?’’ Framed in the evening light, between double doors, is a figure slight as swan’s-down, a silhouette in dark, skinny Armani pants and a silk T-shirt. The hair, cut for over half a century by the experts on two, at least, continents, is now a sleek chignon, blond, perhaps, with the light around it, darker as she moves toward me. I explain that the Eurostar now has a service where you order a taxi on the train and, hey, presto! At the Gare du Nord, there is a driver, bearing your name. ‘‘Really? I didn’t know that. I must go to London more often. I know, I should, but I am so, so happy in this Issue 18, 2013

apartment . . . if I can wade though the scores of Japanese kids fighting their way into Chanel.’’ The haunting voice and the almost ethereal figure are Lee Radziwill’s, and they have been a lifelong part of her enduring identity. But those characteristics are not nearly the whole picture. I am confronted by a subtly strong presence and personality, part wreathed in the glamour of the past, part intensely modern in outlook and awareness. Not for her any all-too-easy reminiscences of ‘‘those days.’’ She is, quite clearly, herself.

n a world of passing celebrity, Lee Radziwill,

79, possesses a timeless aura that radiates nowness. Her bang up-to-date personal style, her laid-back — to say pared down would be to demean its ordered luxury — apartment in Paris (‘‘the favorite of any home I’ve ever had’’), in this, her favored city, shows how subtly she has lived, lives now, without the attendant glare of past pomp and present self-glorification that others crave. She is utterly content, and it shows. What she is not is casual. She regulates her life by standards inbuilt by experience, by nurturing her friendships, by staying true, by her irony, by her humor — all qualities that show she is the real deal. That past sorrows and joys have merged into an elegance that permeates her presence, that ‘‘something in the air’’ that indicates class and courage and composure. Though she now rigorously guards her privacy, her free spirit surfaces easily, and her thoughts come crystal clear. A figure of her time, our history, Lee is her own harbinger for an iconic future. Ours, and hers. One sees why Lee is happy. The apartment, just high up enough to encompass most of the most famous Parisian landmarks, low enough to allow her to sometimes use the stairs to walk Zinnia, a wriggling bundle of snow-white fur, is tailor-made for her lifestyle. The living room, a symphony of light and white and the deep pink of falling rose petals. Around the fireplace, a banquette and armless chairs, covered with crisp white linen printed with tumbling Asian figures (‘‘they go everywhere with me, every house, my apartment in New York, my little men’’) and against the far wall, a sofa of luscious rose silk, thick and ribbed, its back a relaxed baroque scroll. The art on the walls is mostly contemporary, mostly monochrome, most signed, all highly personal. The flowers, two low glass cylinders, a massed spectrum of pinks and reds (‘‘the man who does

them for Dior brings them’’) fill the Parisian dusk with their heady scent. ‘‘Come sit,’’ Lee says, folding her legs into the sofa’s cushioned recesses. ‘‘Some vodka?’’ ‘‘Sure!’’ Over her shoulder to an unseen presence, ‘‘Seulement de l’eau plate pour moi.’’ Near her is a photograph, recently discovered, sent to her: Lee in a column of brilliant red taffeta couture, at the height of her astonishing beauty. She has no recollection of where it was taken or when. ‘‘Were you always aware of your beauty?’’ ‘‘From the word go,’’ she answers simply and honestly. ‘‘But no one else was, then. My mother endlessly told me I was too fat, that I wasn’t a patch on my sister. It wasn’t much fun growing up with her and her almost irrational social climbing in that huge house of my dull stepfather Hughdie Auchincloss in Washington. I longed to be back in East Hampton, running along the beaches, through the dunes and the miles of potato fields my father’s family had owned. And even in summer, when we’d go to to Hammersmith Farm . . . the Auchincloss place in Newport, a house more Victorian or stranger you can’t imagine . . . it wasn’t much better. Well, at least there was the ocean, but naturally my sister claimed the room overlooking Narragansett Bay, where all the boats passed out. All I could see from my window was the cows named Caroline and Jacqueline. (My real first name is Caroline.) Oh, I longed to go back, to be with my father. He was a wonderful man, you’d have loved him. He had such funny idiosyncrasies, like always wearing his black patent evening shoes with his swimming trunks. One thing which infuriates me is how he’s always labeled the drunk black prince. He was never drunk with me, though I’m sure he sometimes drank, due to my mother’s constant nagging. You would, and I would. The only time I ever saw him really drunk was at Jackie’s wedding. He was to give her away, but my mother refused to let him come to the family dinner the night before. So he went to his hotel and drank from misery and loneliness. It was clear in the morning that he was in no state to do anything, and I remember my mother screaming with joy, ‘Hughdie, Hughdie, now you can give Jackie away.’ During the wedding party I had to get him onto a plane back to New York. Accompanied by my first husband, also drunk. It was a nightmare. ‘‘But we were talking about the Hamptons. It was so empty then, houses miles apart. We lived fairly near my aunt Edie Beale and I’d play with her daughter, Little

Sofia Coppola, filmmaker

Lee and I recently ended up on the same flight to Paris. As we were waiting at the airport, she shared a delicious, tiny chicken salad sandwich that her housekeeper had wrapped in foil for her. I was practically in pajamas and, as always, she was in cream cashmere, looking, as always, perfectly put together. At one point, she asked me to watch her dog, Zinnia, as she sneaked off to the ladies’ room with one of her thin Vogue cigarettes. When I asked her where she was going, she said, ‘‘I’m not telling,’’ with a little smile and disappeared. I got to know Lee through Marc Jacobs when I was living in Paris. She

helped him pick out beautiful linens and dishes when he was setting up his apartment. Lee knew all the best places to go, and they got beautiful tablecloths at D. Porthault and silver at Puiforcat. Of course, she has impeccable taste and knows how things should be done. My upbringing was crazy and fun, with ’70s artists in Northern California, not at all like the precise world Lee seems to live in, which I find so interesting. I love her classic and chic apartments with beautiful flowers and books and grown-up furniture. I love having lunch with Lee. Recently I met her, and she looked great in bright pink slim Céline trousers and a hat. I always wonder

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what she thinks of the world around her today, how different it must be to when she grew up. I think she likes me because I’m not really gaudy or ostentatious. I love hearing stories of her life. My favorites are about when she and Truman Capote went on tour with the Rolling Stones and got caught in the middle of a drug bust. And I love hearing the glamorous love stories. She told me her greatest romance was with Peter Beard in Greece one summer, when he was teaching art to her niece and nephew. That ended her marriage, but how great to have that be your romantic summer fling?

Lee keeps everyone on their toes — you feel like you have to be your best with her. I remember having dinner with her, and she ordered a delicate plate of asparagus. I got a big bowl of spaghetti Bolognese, and she looked horrified. I have a great memory of being on a boat in Corsica with Lee, and after a picnic of Corsican cheese and rosé she dove into the turquoise water and swam to a little island. She always looks chic, whether just out of the ocean, hair back in a sleek one-piece or at dinner on vacation in white trousers. I also love that she’s so honest, doesn’t tolerate phoniness, tells great

Pretty in pink Clockwise from top: Radziwill’s AngloIndian botanicals in the living room; a book from the I. M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar next to a group of Line Vautrin boxes; a view of the Eiffel Tower, from her balcony; a picture of Radziwill on the cover of Life magazine from 1967 sits on her desk.

‘I wasn’t always so pure in my taste. As a child, the person I admired most in the world was Lana Turner! She seemed the epitome of glamour, and her glitzy surroundings so enviable.’

stories and always has perfect hair. I love the way she speaks. I don’t know anyone else who phrases things the way she does. She once described a lunch with someone as, ‘‘Just truly a life-diminishing experience.’’ One of my most vivid memories of Lee is visiting her apartment in Paris with my young daughters for tea. Romy was 4, and Lee gave her a plate of brownies and pastries. I was terrified of a hyper kid surrounded by cream furniture and toile, and Lee, in a perfectly calm voice and a smile, said to her, ‘‘Romy, I will just kill you if you get chocolate on my chair.’’ They have been friends ever since.

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in 1932; Radziwill at home with her daughter, Tina, in a room designed by Mongiardino in London in 1966; with her sister Jacqueline at a debutante ball in 1951; with her ex-husband Prince Stanislas ‘‘Stas’’ Radziwill in 1967.

‘It was the first time Jackie and I felt really close, carefree together, high on the sheer joy of getting away from our mother, the deadly dinners of political bores, the Sunday lunches that lasted for hours.’ 94

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Clockwise from Top Left: Still Life of ‘‘happy Times’’ (assouline): Stan Wan, Photo in book: © The Richard Avedon Foundation; Bettmann/Corbis; Henry Clarke/Condé Nast Ltd./Trunk Archive; Eric Boman; Keystone Pictures USA/Zuma Press; © Mark Shaw/MPTV Images; Cecil Beaton/Vogue/Condé Nast (2); Daily Mail/Rex/Alamy.

a legendary life Clockwise from top left: Radziwill photographed by Richard Avedon in the library of her Fifth Avenue home, from her book ‘‘Happy Times’’; her parents, John and Janet Lee Bouvier, in Southampton, N.Y.,

natural elegance Clockwise from top left: Radziwill with her pug, Thomas, photographed for Vogue in 1960; a watercolor painting by Radziwill in her New York apartment; with her great friend the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev in 1974; in a cape and satin dress by Nina Ricci in 1962 during a photo shoot at an estate in Paris.

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Edie, even though she was quite a bit older. Grey Gardens was a beautiful house, but I lost touch when I married and lived in England. Later, I had my own house in East Hampton, and went to visit them, with Peter Beard. My God, you should have seen the place! And them! But they were sweet and funny and happily living in their own world. The original idea for the film was about my return to East Hampton after 30 years and to have my aunt Edith narrate my nostalgia and hers. So we phoned the Maysles brothers. Initially the Edies were against it, but the Maysles charmed them as they only worked with 16-millimeter cameras, and were finally allowed in. . . . The remake is good. Have you seen it? . . . Listen, I booked a table at Voltaire. We should leave at . . . what? . . . 8:15. Is that O.K.?’’

he taxi swings into the Place de la Concorde.

‘‘You know, Paris — well, at least this part of it — has hardly changed since Jackie and I first came here in 1951. We were so young! It was the first time we felt really close, carefree together, high on the sheer joy of getting away from our mother; the deadly dinner parties of political bores, the Sunday lunches for the same people that lasted hours, Jackie and I not allowed to say a word. Not that we wanted to, except to a lovely man called James Forrestal, our secretary of defense, who had a bit of the culture we craved. Jackie’s dream was France, but mine was really art and Italy, as that was all I cared about through school. My history of art teacher, who saved my life at Farmington, was obsessed with Bernard Berenson and I succumbed as well. My first discovery of him was when we were taken to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, better known then as Fenway Court. Berenson had chosen all the most important paintings Isabella should buy. I had another life open. ‘‘I wrote to Berenson at I Tatti, several letters; then out of the blue he replied, asking me to come and see him if I ever came to Italy. Well, that was it. I thought of nothing else. So after we were here, I went to Florence. Florence and Berenson and I Tatti! Imagine! Any artistic intellect I possess is due to that time. He took me under his wing, read to me, encouraged me to write. In fact he

published a letter I wrote him. That was my proudest moment. I went back to I Tatti last summer. Though there was no B.B., and no Nicky Mariano, the atmosphere is still the same, though now there are maybe a hundred people there, great scholars-to-be of Renaissance art studying, learning, in those almost monklike surroundings, eating at a beautiful long oak table. He was one of the most fascinating men I ever knew.’’ The doorman opens the taxi door. ‘‘Bonsoir, Princesse.’’ We go inside. ‘‘Madame!’’ ‘‘Madame la Princesse!’’ ‘‘Princesse Radziwill, je suis ravi de vous voir!’’ This fabulous ancien régime politeness to Lee, who has booked the table, and the taxi, and my hotel room, as Mme. Radziwill. One sees why she likes Paris. ‘‘Believe me, when I used to come here with Nureyev or Lenny Bernstein, there was none of that. I was a pimple beside their stature and genius. When I was young, I used to think that everyone should die at 70 . . . but my closest friends, like Rudolf and Andy [Warhol] and to an extent Capote, let alone most of my close family . . . didn’t even reach that age. There is something to be said for being older, and memories. How could I ever forget Rudolf’s funeral, here, at the Opera . . . the whole place swathed with deep red roses, and draped in black, as well as the dancers and les petits rats descending the stairs. I’ve seen some extraordinary funerals in my life, Jack’s of course. That had a different kind of sadness, a bleak, brutal, tragic end to hopes for a greater future and the buoyant few years of his presidency . . . the opening up of the White House to artists and musicians; I can’t deny those few years were glamorous, being on the presidential yacht for the America’s Cup races, the parties with the White House en fête. It was so ravishing. People think it was decorated by Sister Parish . . . well, a bit was . . . but really it was Stéphane Boudin of Jansen, who Jackie had met here in Paris; and, as well, Jack’s charismatic charm and enthusiasm for life. I remember the first time Jackie asked Jack to Merrywood, to pick her up for some dinner. You couldn’t mention the word ‘Democrat’ in my stepfather’s house or even presence — nor in my father’s

Giambattista Valli, fashion Designer

‘‘Synthèse,’’ in the French Rationalist meaning of the term, is the word that immediately comes to mind when thinking about Lee Radziwill. It is a sense of synthesis in every aspect of her life that struck me when I met her at my very first fashion show eight years ago, and is still what I love most about her today: in the way she presents herself to people, in her style, in her silhouette. There is a streamlined essence to her point of view. ‘‘Editing’’ could be the equivalent word in the world of fashion, my world. She is capable of capturing an art masterpiece or a person with a single adjective. Sharp to the point. Lee is also of the moment. ‘‘Nostalgia’’ is not a word for her. She is beyond her past lives. Her curiosity about writers, artists, poets, even fashion designers, has never stopped. Sometimes, in our long conversations,

she admits that she would have loved to accomplish some kind of artistic work, like the people in her circle of friends. Lee does not realize that she is all of that. With her signature understatement and childlike glee, she doesn’t seem to realize that she has lived history in the making. She shared ‘‘happy times’’ with a young Rudolf Nureyev. She danced at the Black and White Ball with Truman Capote. And traveled through India with sister Jacqueline, where they met Prime Minister Nehru and rode on top of an elephant. She toured with the Rolling Stones and shared houses with Andy Warhol and Peter Beard, among others. She knew powerful men who changed the course of history. Always, Lee has been appreciative of the people she has encountered: Nehru, the queen of England, Gianni Agnelli, Renzo

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Mongiardino, Onassis, André Malraux. She had a fortunate upbringing and has led an even more privileged adult life. And while she has lived luxury at its bygone best, her life has not been without great sadness and tragedy. With her sense of synthesis, she has streamlined those relationships to their essence: that of human being to human being. It is probably that idea of going straight to the point of something and having a profound sense of herself and of loneliness that has allowed Lee to survive tremendous sorrows. Although I have become close to Lee only recently, she has been in my mind for a very long time. She was an obsession of mine when I was growing up in Rome and forging my way in the world. She is one of those figures you hold up in your universe that are part of your vocabulary, your imagination. I remember coming across this very rare

documentary, ‘‘This Side of Paradise,’’ by Jonas Mekas, and all that I had ever envisioned her to be came true in this little film. She was a mythical figure to me. There she remained, closely present, until I had the chance of meeting her in Paris. I disagree with Andy Warhol, who said it’s best never to go backstage for fear of a star’s true nature being revealed. Not long after we met, I proposed that Lee accompany me on a trip to Florence. She had not been back to the Tuscan city in years. We walked the same paths and roads she had done as a young girl, when she went there for the first time with her sister. I will never forget her enthusiasm when she entered Bernard Berenson’s Florentine retreat, Villa I Tatti. Lee always says that happy times are a rare few in life. I had one, for sure, that day.

for that matter — and I felt Jack was in for a rough ride. But he was a senator, so he already had a kind of authority as well as a dazzling personality. He won them over pretty quickly. ‘‘My life could certainly have been different. Not so much because Jackie married a Kennedy, but because he became president. If he’d lost the election, I’d have probably spent most of my life in England with Stas, whom I adored, as did anyone who knew him, and our children, Anthony and Tina. We had this divine house on Buckingham Place behind the palace, and the prettiest country place in Oxfordshire . . . Turville Grange . . . that Mongiardino decorated. He glued the walls of the dining room with Sicilian scarves, and asked Lila di Nobili to paint each child with their favorite animals crisscrossed by bands of flowers. It was enchanting. Sadly Lila lacquered over them, so I couldn’t take them when we left. To me, that’s the essence of great design. It was a perfect Turgenev room . . . something simple and original that stays in the mind forever. Like I Tatti, and Nancy Lancaster’s Ditchley Park. Or Peter Beard’s house in Montauk. But I wasn’t always so pure in my taste. As a child, the person I admired most in the world was Lana Turner! She seemed the epitome of glamour, and her glitzy surroundings so enviable, the opposite of my mother’s extremely banal taste. And of course no one had as much taste as Rudolf, vast 19th-century paintings of naked men on glowing velvet walls, Russian-Oriental fabrics and furs, all on a huge scale. He was so impressed with what Mongiardino did for me that he took him for himself and some of his ballets. ‘‘We weren’t taught anything like that as children. In fact, my childhood taught me nothing . . . zero. I never saw a play with my mother until I was 14 and then it was ‘Hansel and Gretel.’ My father, naturally, spoiled me when I was allowed to see him — flying to New York from Washington, alone, in those terrifying planes. He’d take me to Danny Kaye movies and rent a dog for me to walk in the park on Sunday — a different dog every Sunday — and then to have butterscotch sundaes with almonds at Schrafft’s. My mother simply had me, sticking me with a series of horrible governesses. There was one particular beast called Aggie, who I remember well. I hadn’t a clue how to be a parent myself, and I expect I put Tina and Anthony through tough times. I find it hard to read people’s minds, my own children’s minds even harder. But it all worked out and I was blessed with two wonderful children. Anthony and I were wonderfully close in the years before he died, and my daughter, Tina, who leads the most original life, is coming to stay with me in Italy soon for four weeks. . . . I say, it’s awfully late, you must be exhausted and I know I am.’’

t’s late in the evening and the apartment is dark

now, with only a pool of silvery-pink light on the sofa as Lee walks me to the door, Zinnia bouncing between our feet. ‘‘No, Zinny! Tomorrow!! And you, too, tomorrow . . . let’s have breakfast at L’Avenue in the sunshine. Good night!’’ The door gently shuts, the elevator opens. All so easy, so civilized. One can see why she likes Paris. Half awake, I lie collecting thoughts, the bare facts, of the near-legend I have just left . . . Caroline Lee Bouvier . . . born in 1933 to John V. Bouvier III and Janet Lee, four years after her sister Jacqueline. Becomes stepdaughter

of Hugh D. Auchincloss Jr. Married: 1) 1953, Michael Canfield. 2) 1959, Prince Stanislas ‘‘Stas’’ Radziwill; two children, Anthony and Christina (‘‘Tina’’). 3) 1988, Herbert Ross, film director. Lives in the United States and France. The lesser-known facts are the fodder of tabloids. Her duplicitous treatment by the whims of Aristotle Onassis. Her great friend Truman Capote, insisting Lee should act, adapts ‘‘Laura’’ as a vehicle for her, but stage fright prevents her from pursuing a theatrical career. Her romances with the most attractive men of the time — the photographer Peter Beard and Richard Meier, the architect, possibly even Mick Jagger, among them. The last-minute calling off of her wedding to the San Francisco hotelier Newton Cope. Unfulfilling years, exacerbated by her sister’s escalating ill health, their difficult relationship and a certain amount of friction with her children, led Lee to bouts of deep depression and occasional dips into alcoholism, both bravely, the latter publicly, divulged and eradicated. Indeed, so much so that she was able to cope, resiliently, with the death of her nephew John F. Kennedy Jr., to whom she was extremely close, followed, shockingly soon after, by that of her son, Anthony, from a rare form of cancer. These tragedies, compounded by earlier, unforgettably tragic memories, convinced Lee to make, if not a new life, a different one: one where the press is gentler; where her past, good or infamous, is not daily revisited; and where she can be surrounded by so many of the things she grew up with and learned to love about Europe. In 1974 she and Jackie published ‘‘One Special Summer,’’ a memoir of their European trip, written originally as a gift to their parents, and in 2001 Lee wrote a second memoir, ‘‘Happy Times,’’ published by her friends, the Assoulines. It’s an engaging picture of some of the most glorious moments in her vivid life. She says the best part was being hands-on in its production, discussing the layout, the typefaces, selecting photographs from among myriad images.

e meet, as she said we would, in the sunshine, at the chic cafe spitting distance from her building. Chairs are arranged for her, water, espresso and an ashtray brought without a word said. ‘‘Well?’’ she says, ‘‘what’s next?’’ ‘‘Tell me about your marriages.’’ ‘‘Oh.’’ Short now, taken aback, no low note and a long pause. ‘‘O.K., where shall we start?’’ I say, ‘‘The first?’’ Another pause. ‘‘Michael Canfield? O.K. . . . I was very young when we met, and he was so good-looking and clever. I wanted so badly to get away from my mother, and he seemed to offer everything . . . looks, privilege, friends, fun. His father was chairman of Harper & Brothers, so he led a very literary life and was a brilliant editor. I was deliriously happy for a while, moving to London, our house in Chester Square . . . but . . . he drank seriously. He was very fragile. One day I couldn’t open the front door, he was slumped, out cold, inside. He tried to stop, but nothing worked for any time. He said I was so in tune with life and he wasn’t any longer. And besides, I had met Stas . . . Stas was divorcing at the time, and we fell in love and eventually we married. . . . Those were glorious years. Being married to Stas was certainly the

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friends like these Clockwise from top left: Radziwill with Mick and Bianca Jagger in Montauk, N.Y., in 1972; out on the town in New York in 1972; napping with her West Highland

terrier, Whiz, in 1985; with her ex-husband Herbert Ross at a Giorgio Armani party at the MusĂŠe Rodin in 1989; walking with Andy Warhol and his dachshund in Montauk in 1973.

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top left: ÂŠ Peter Beard/Art + Commerce; Ron Galella/WireImage/Getty Images.

portrait of a lady A Polaroid of Radziwill taken by Andy Warhol in 1972.

happiest part of my life, so he must have been the love of my life: there were other infatuations, other loves even, but never the joy or knowledge of life and living that I experienced with Stas. . . . Jack and my sister would come over, staying in Buckingham Place rather than the embassy, and I’d be included in all the great events, dinners at Buckingham Palace, you know. And the trip to India. The best part of that was meeting Nehru, he was seductive, mentally rather than physically, not unlike Berenson, and so beautiful, and with the most exquisite soft golden skin. We stayed in his house and he showed us to our rooms every night, showing us the books we should read, which made one feel completely at home. ‘‘Stas and I went to Washington often . . . and then. . . .’’ Her voice trails off as she stares into the sun, perhaps considering the end of her marriage to Stas. ‘‘More coffee? Well, there was Jack’s death and . . . and . . . Ari. Listen, I think the world knows more about all that than I do. He was dynamic, irrational, cruel I suppose, but fascinating. He also had the most beautiful skin, and smelled wonderful. Naturally, I mean. Fascinating . . . as my sister discovered!’’ ‘‘And Herbert Ross?’’ ‘‘Oh no, do we have to talk about that? O.K., he was certainly different from anybody else I’d been involved with, and the film world sounded exciting. Well, it wasn’t. I hated Hollywood, and the provincialism of the industry. . . . Herbert had been married to the ballerina Nora Kaye until she died, and unbeknownst to me was still obsessed by her. It was ‘Nora said this, Nora did it like that, Nora liked brown and orange.’ . . . If anybody even breathed her name, Herbert would burst into tears. I had to clench my fists every time and was deeply hurt as I thought I had created a wonderful life for him. Thank God we never really settled in Los Angeles. My New York was difficult for Herbert, so we parted. . . . Now, no more on husbands!’’ ‘‘Then let’s go back to the president’s assassination,’’ I say. ‘‘Do you remember where you were?’’ Lee pauses. ‘‘As if yesterday. It was in the evening, in London. Stas came running up the stairs, his voice and face in shock. I started crying . . . uncontrollably. For hours. Finally he said, ‘Lee, you have to get ahold of yourself, and I stopped, suddenly. It was the last time I have ever cried. I’ve never cried since, never. Anthony’s death was equally soul destroying, but with an illness it’s so distressing . . . coupled with his bravery throughout it. I could only cry inner tears. When he died, I was already cried out. And I certainly wouldn’t cry about myself, or my life. In some funny way I’m lucky that there was so much more interest in my sister. Which, of course,

I understand. I enjoy reading about real celebrities even now, and Jackie certainly qualified in that league. Of course, when you are closely related to someone so in the public eye, you tend to think the interest is dumb or trivial because you know the person, and the truth. But I certainly understand people’s fascination. After all, as the young wife of the youngest elected president, she was fascinating.

A “

s to that interest in her spilling over into my

life? Well, at times it was annoying, at times funny. Perhaps the most depressing part was that whatever I did, or tried to do, got disproportionate coverage purely because of Jackie being my sister. But you learn to deal with the scrutiny, even the lies, as long as it’s not malicious. ‘‘Regrets? I think everyone has regrets, and people who say they haven’t are either liars . . . or narcissists. There have been many things in my life to have regrets about, in the sense I wish I could have changed them, or somehow made them not happen. What I don’t have is envy. I’m perfectly content at this time of my life. I’ve done so many fascinating things and the greatest joy is that I continue to do interesting things and meet fascinating people. Working for Diana Vreeland at Harper’s Bazaar was a great learning curve. Working in P.R. for Giorgio Armani taught me a lot about that particular — I almost said ‘peculiar’ — industry. And I met my dearest friend, Hamilton South, while there. ‘‘Really, the most fulfilling roles have been my friendships — Berenson, Nureyev, Peter, even Andy Warhol because he was so wildly different — then, and now Bernard-Henri Lévy and his wife, Arielle Dombasle, and Giambattista Valli, and Diego Della Valle, who are all angelic to me. ‘‘Am I melancholy by nature? Less so, now, and I certainly don’t bounce out to parties and talk all night. One can’t help but be a bit melancholy when you see how the world has changed, and I don’t mean that nostalgically. Every day one is confronted by words and visions of human misery. You would have to have a heart of ice not to be a bit melancholy. I’ve been happy, and am happy now. My life has been exciting, active, changeable. At my age, one is lucky to have old friends, and, fortunately, most of them, like me, can’t seriously work a computer and the phone is our link. So I’m not lonely. I have this apartment, this view, my burstingwith-light New York apartment . . . yes, and you, Zinny . . . this ‘douceur de vivre,’ this city.’’ One can see why Paris loves Lee.

Peter Beard, artist

I met Lee when I was visiting Jackie and Ari Onassis on Skorpios. Lee was the artistic one — the humorous adventurous outsider on the inside. I was lucky to be there wherever we were: in Greece, France, Kenya, Montauk, Mustique, Barbados. Then, of course, there was Lily Pond Lane, where her crazy and fabulous aunt Edie, and her cousin Little Edie, lived in hiding. Lee and I had the idea to do the documentary ‘‘Grey Gardens.’’ We began filming it all with Jonas Mekas,

the pet raccoons and the 52 very strange cats. Then we brought in the Maysles, who, at a regrettable turning point, took over the project; but my original footage — by far the most fabulous — remains to be seen. Lee was always the one with high taste, humor and brains. We went on the Stones’ ‘‘Exile on Main St.’’ tour with our friend Truman Capote — and on some super side trips afterward. Back at Lee’s Fifth Avenue pied-à-terre, we had visits from Andy Warhol,

Richard Lindner, Larry Rivers and Rudolf Nureyev. There were so many life-enhancing and extraordinary individuals. Lee was the key element. And talk about Lee’s flair for brilliant surroundings: the door opened onto one of the seriously great Francis Bacon paintings, collected early in the 1950s, before Bacon was really known, and well before I actually introduced him to Lee. (Bacon, by the way, thought she was great, too.) Bernard Berenson was a mentor

during Lee’s early life, and she liked to quote the advice that he gave her — to go for ‘‘whatever is life enhancing.’’ And actually that sums up Lee Bouvier Radziwill — everything was life enhancing. A couple of years ago I spent a few weeks visiting her in a house she had taken in Monte Argentario, in Tuscany. I was delighted to see that Lee was still going for it.

Issue 18, 2013

THe MAN BEHIND THE CU�TAIN

After working in the lower rungs of his father’s company, the PPR chief Fran ois-Henri Pinault was handed the keys to an uncertain kingdom. But with a series of controversial hirings, firings and acquisitions, he’s pulled off the rare feat of besting the patriarch and creating a fashion empire. By Joshua levine Photograph by Hannah starkey

t’s not like I called Nicolas up one day and said, ‘It’s over.’ That’s not how it works,’’ said François-Henri Pinault, who runs PPR, corporate parent to some of fashion’s best-known brands. Nonetheless, it came down to the same thing in the end. Last November, Pinault decided that the fashion darling Nicolas Ghesquière was no longer the right man for the job of creative director at Balenciaga, the house founded in the 1930s by the Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga. ‘‘Nicolas built Balenciaga over 15 years — he reanimated it. He projected an absolutely incredible modernity onto a traditional brand. But there comes a time, often when a brand has matured, when it needs to broaden its scope and its artistic vocabulary and that’s when you need to ask yourself if it’s time for something else. That’s also what happened with Stefano’’ — last year Pinault replaced the designer Stefano Pilati at Yves Saint Laurent, another PPR brand, with Hedi Slimane — ’’ and that’s what happened with Nicolas.’’ A few weeks after the news broke, Pinault replaced Ghesquière with Alexander Wang, the dynamic 28-year-old Asian-American designer known for his $80 T-shirts.

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Both moves provoked a sharp intake of breath in the fashion world. Ghesquière and Pilati had won consistent plaudits for their craftsmanship, their seriousness and their flair. Both designers had brought their labels back from the dead and were making pots of money. (YSL’s sales, still piloted by Pilati, grew over 40 percent in the first half of 2012.) ‘‘The numbers were very good, so it took real courage to say, ‘We can do better,’ ’’ said Floriane de Saint Pierre, a fashion recruiter who has worked with PPR. As powerful as François-Henri Pinault has become, the first person the Pinault name calls to mind is often his father, François Pinault. Even Salma Hayek, François-Henri’s wife, made that mistake before their first date in 2006. By then, François-Henri had already been running Artémis, the holding company that controls PPR, for three years. ‘‘She said, ‘What do you mean? I’m not going out with some 70-year-old guy,’’ recalled Mimma Viglezio, a former Gucci executive who fixed the two of them up. ‘‘She thought she was supposed to go out with his father.’’ It’s an easy enough mistake to make. In 1999, two big-fisted industrial heavyweights, François Pinault of Pinault-Printemps-Redoute and Bernard Arnault of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, squared off for control of Gucci. Arnault wanted to add the once-grand Italian brand to his already ample luxury portfolio, while Pinault was looking for a high-growth ticket out of Western Europe, where his lackluster retail and industrial holdings were concentrated. By the time the legal pummeling and libel suits stopped and Pinault staggered from the ring, debt ridden but victorious, the two had entered legend as the Ali-Frazier of fashion, and they’re still remembered that way. Four years later, with several of his new luxury brands ailing badly, François Pinault invited his son to dinner at L’Ami Louis, a Paris restaurant known for its Rabelaisian roast chicken. François-Henri had spent most of his career in the muddier outposts of his father’s empire — for a time he sold pharmaceutical

OFF-DUTY TYCOON Franรงois-Henri Pinault, the C.E.O. of the fashion conglomerate PPR, with his wife, the actress Salma Hayek, in their 19thcentury house in Paris.

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‘‘H.E.C. mafia.’’ He followed school with a stint in Los Angeles, doing his military service at an economic posting with the French Consulate. He loved California and wanted to stay when his tour was up, but the empire beckoned. In 1987 he flew home to sell wood paneling, doors and windows from behind the counter of the Pinault outlet in Évreux, about an hour outside Paris. There started the real education of FrançoisHenri Pinault, as he crawled through a kind of industrial obstacle course toward the corner office. He closed a wood factory in Brittany and was essentially held hostage by the employees for a day. ’’That was my first sequestration,’’ he said evenly. There were others. On his first day as the new head of FNAC, he was greeted with the banner, ‘‘Pinault, Père et Fric,’’ a corruption of the phrase Father and Son that means Father and Money. ‘‘The pressure was nuts. He bent over backward to show that he was worthy of taking over,’’ Palus said. ‘‘His father is not the kind of guy who says, ‘Good job.’ It was a vie de chien — a dog’s life.’’ As Franck Riboud, a friend of François-Henri’s who took over the French food maker Danone from his father, Antoine Riboud, commented: ‘‘Struggles with fathers . . . we knew them, him and me,’’ adding, ‘‘I say bravo to him, not for his strategy at PPR — strategy is just the story you tell everybody after you’ve done it — but for his emotional strength. He did things in a FrançoisHenri Pinault way, and he did it without defacing his relationship with his father. That’s really hard to do.’’ The company Pinault père left Pinault fils in 2003 was lopsided and struggling. Gucci, led by the flamboyant tandem of Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole, had slowed, and the other brands bought to complement it — YSL and Bottega Veneta, FRIDA GIANNINI GUCCI particularly — were losing money badly. Ford and De Sole’s contracts came due in 2004, and Pinault, controversially, cut them loose. At the time, Ford held the entire fashion world in thrall. ‘‘Everything was ‘Tom Ford for Gucci,’ ‘YSL by Tom Ford.’ The brands were smothered by Ford, and Domenico agreed to it,’’ Palus noted. Still, many in the fashion world were convinced that Gucci would be finished without Ford and De Sole. ‘‘Everybody thought he was out of his mind,’’ Saint Pierre recalled. ‘‘That was the toughest time for him in the business — Tom Ford was a very big star,’’ Palus said. ‘‘He analyzed where Gucci had gone off course and made sure it would never happen again by undoing everything Ford had put in place. Each brand would be run separately from now on and no designer would ever be bigger than the brand again.’’

previous page: Salma Hayek’s hair by Madeleine Cofano at B Agency; Makeup by Christophe Danchaud at B Agency. Kane and Giannini: Billy Farrell/ Billy Farrell Agency; Maier and Burton: Neil Rasmus/Billy Farrell Agency; Wang: Rabbani and Solimene Photography/Wireimage/Getty Images.

equipment in Africa — and nobody Deneve, the former Lanvin really knew who he was. His father C.E.O. he hired to run the told him that he had decided to step company in early 2011. Hedi down and that his son would be Slimane, who has artistic taking over, effective immediately. control of the brand, ‘‘Monday morning comes, and I had reimagined the store go into to my office and I say, in streamlined Deco — ‘What’s going on here?’ ’’ Françoisstraight lines, crisp angles, christopher kane Henri told me last November at mirrors reflecting veined PPR’s headquarters on Paris’s black and white marble. Avenue Hoche. ‘‘They say, ‘You’re François-Henri took the boss, so you should go to the boss’s office.’ ’’ everything in without comment, but he did have Pinault senior had come to work early and had a question for the saleswoman: How many times moved out of his office and into his son’s. ‘‘It was a day did the marble floors need to be washed? funny and dramatic and surreal. I knew it was Four or five, came the answer. Did the marble’s coming, but I never expected it to happen so matte finish require more upkeep than a shiny fast. I was still only 40 years old, and my father finish? Indeed it did. He wanted to see the was 66 and in great shape, full of plans for PPR. changing room. Here Slimane had called for But he had seen too floor-to-ceiling mirrors all around and bright many omnipotent white lighting. François-Henri wondered fathers and what whether the glare might be too TOMAS MAIER BOTTEGA VENETA they did. I saw how harsh, and he had a suggestion: hard this was for perhaps it might be worth him.’’ bringing in a makeup artist or a Over the past 10 movie person to ensure that the years, Françoislighting made the customer look Henri, now 50, has good. ’’It’s clear we still have turned his father’s work to do,’’ Deneve said a little empire upside down, sheepishly. ALEXANDER WANG BALENCIAGA and he’s done it with In 2005, François-Henri very little fanfare. decided to step down from He’s ditched the Artémis, the family holding company, and run wood trading and PPR directly, a job his father had no taste for electrical distribution businesses, sold off most and largely left to trusted captains. (He later of the dowdy retail operations (a few remain on invited his father back to look after some of the block, a continued source of frustration) and Artémis’s other holdings, like Christie’s auction refitted an old merchant steamer into a fashion house, Château Latour and Le Point, a frigate. Among the stylish flags it flies are newsmagazine.) He started by decommissioning Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, Stella those captains, chief among them Serge McCartney, Christopher Kane, the men’s tailor Weinberg, who ran PPR and had been his Brioni and the shoemaker Sergio Rossi. father’s closest ally. ‘‘I said, ‘Serge, I’d like to be Like other luxury companies, PPR got hurt very operational. It pains me to tell you this, badly by the financial crisis. The past couple of even if I knew you were expecting it, but that’s years, however, have been how we’re going to organize very good ones. In 2011, sales things now.’ ’’ Weinberg of PPR’s luxury brands grew remembered François-Henri 22 percent, to around 5 billion taking his first steps a little euros. Profits were up 34 tentatively. ’’He gives an percent to 1.3 billion euros. impression of grand serenity, PPR’s stock, long penalized but back in 2005 he was petrified.’’ for its hodgepodge of illThe company that would assorted businesses, has eventually become PPR began lately performed very well. in 1962, a month after François‘‘François-Henri Pinault Henri was born, in Rennes, when was not given a toy to play his father opened Établissements with,’’ said Thomas Chauvet, François Pinault, a wood trading Sarah Burton Alexander M Queen a luxury-goods analyst at and construction materials Citigroup. ‘‘He is the one who business. He wasn’t around much. successfully refocused the group. Until recently The young Pinault found another kind of family PPR’s stock was unloved and misunderstood.’’ at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales, I caught up with François-Henri one evening the top French business school known as H.E.C. when he was being shown around the newly It was here that he first bonded with Jeanrenovated Saint Laurent boutique in the Paris François Palus, now his right hand department store Galeries Lafayette. PPR had at PPR and perhaps his closest friend since their recently lopped off the ‘‘Yves’’ and rechristened days in business school together, and he has the label Saint Laurent. He was there with Paul stocked PPR with what some people call an

François-Henri has set daunting goals for himself. By 2020, he intends for PPR as a whole to hit revenue of 24 billion euros. That’s double where the group is today — triple if you don’t count the retail businesses that he intends to sell or spin off next year. ‘‘The thing that fills me with horror is passing along the same thing that was passed along to me. If that’s the case, I will have failed — you’d better kill me first,’’ he said. ‘‘I am obsessed with the idea that I was handed something, but I’m going to try to bring my own stone to the building.’’ Pinault laid his first big stone when he bought the German sneaker maker Puma in 2007 to anchor a fleet of so-called lifestyle brands like Volcom, a California brand known for skate wear and sunglasses, which PPR bought in 2011 for $607.5 million. One day people may Stella M Cartney not need $6,000 handbags, went the thinking, but they’ll always need sneakers and sunglasses. That part of the plan isn’t working so well right now. Puma remains a distant No. 3 behind Nike and Adidas. ‘‘It’s one of the areas I’m not satisfied with,’’ admitted François-Henri, who has already shuffled top management and recently brought in his friend Palus, a former rugby-playing tough guy from southwest France, to shake things up. François-Henri’s second big stone may not look like much from outside, but he is convinced the building will crumble without it. In 2011, he set up PPR Home to oversee a wide range of ecological and social initiatives, including environmental profit-and-loss statements and sustainable python farming. (Gucci is one of the python’s biggest predators.) ‘‘Sustainable development is a fundamental break that’s going to reshuffle the entire deck,’’ he said. ‘‘There are companies today that are going to dominate in the future simply because they understand that.’’

McCartney: Eamonn McCormack/Getty Images; RUSSO: Michel Dufour/Wireimage/Getty Images; Slimane: Sylvain Gaboury/Filmmagic/Getty Images.

but they are our jewels,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve ‘‘cosmopolitan’’ and ‘‘commercial.’’ No one got to protect them, and in this case, Hedi was cares whether they rewrite fashion’s idiom. on the front lines by himself. We didn’t protect ‘‘He senses that there are cycles, even with him enough.’’ people,’’ Palus noted. ‘‘It’s not that people stop These days, the entire being good, it’s that it just doesn’t FRANCESCO RUSSO Pinault family often gathers resonate anymore between the SERGIO ROSSI for weekends at François person and business. It’s like with senior’s majestic Château de la a rocket ship. You need one stage Mormaire in Montfortto get you out of the atmosphere, l’Amaury, about 45 minutes and then you’ve got to change outside of Paris. The distracted engines. François is really good at father has turned into a doting recognizing when that moment grandfather. comes.’’ ‘‘He teaches them bad words,’’ One thing François-Henri François-Henri said. Come doesn’t do with his designers is Friday, François-Henri likes to pile Salma kibitz. Once he’s determined who he wants and Valentina, their 5-year-old daughter, into holding the sketch pad, he keeps his mitts off their Lexus hybrid S.U.V. and drive out. Often the merchandise. ‘‘It’s not my job to say, ‘That they bring along François and Mathilde, his handbag doesn’t work,’ ’’ he said. Unlike two children with his first wife, Dorothée Bernard Arnault, François-Henri doesn’t throw Lepère, whom he divorced in 2005. (He also his, or his wife’s, weight around. The rumor at has a son, Augustin, from a brief affair with LVMH was that whenever Madame Arnault the model Linda Evangelista; he ended things came into a store, executives could expect a soon after learning she was pregnant. He call from Monsieur Arnault that afternoon. acknowledged the child, and last May settled Meanwhile, an executive who has worked high up at PPR says, ‘‘Salma Hayek is very precise in his child-support dispute.) Home life is cozy, if that’s the right word for what she likes and doesn’t like, but François has the family’s regal 19th-century hôtel particulier never called me up saying, ‘Salma told me. . . . ’ ’’ on the Left Bank. ‘‘This was the first house I Tomas Maier, the creative director of Bottega made really for myself,’’ François-Henri said. Veneta, said, ‘‘He leaves his creative people ‘‘I had just divorced and I loved buying the a lot of autonomy — as long as furniture, the lighting, everything.’’ We were you bring in the results.’’ Maier sitting on the wide white sofa in his salon. It’s did: he breathed ‘‘It’’-ness got a comfortable bachelor slouchiness to it, and into Bottega Veneta’s $6,000 a heavy dose of guy design — lamps with woven Cabat bag, sending the ceramic bottle bases, a standing lamp like a big brand’s sales up tenfold in the fabric tree. The fixture over the dining table is a past decade, to 683 million euros large canopy of attached white plastic-looking in 2011. What about Françoisrings — about which Hayek has her doubts. ‘‘I Henri’s propensity to change mean, I like it, but it’s not really the best light for rockets? ‘‘I don’t worry about eating,’’ she said diplomatically. Not that she it,’’ Maier said. ‘‘Creative directors can also need a change meddles. ‘‘It’s not something I need to do anymore for the fun of it,’’ she said. ‘‘I’ve done it sometimes, it’s not one-sided. before when I set up my house in L.A.’’ (There’s Change doesn’t scare me.’’ also a ranch near Mount Rainier in Washington; If anything, François-Henri Hayek used to spend more time in the United has occasionally been criticized States, but she says she’s settled into her Paris for giving his designers too long life.) François-Henri is clearly crazy about his a leash. Shortly after unveiling wife. He’s serene, she’s sassy, and the balance his first collection for Saint seems to work. This wasn’t always self-evident. Laurent to unecstatic reviews, The two of them broke off their engagement in Slimane let loose a spiteful rant 2008 but got back together a few months later. on his Twitter feed directed at ‘‘When I met François, I was an activist and not the New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn. into fashion at all,’’ she said. ‘‘I It didn’t amount to much, HEDI SLIMANE was very confrontational with him but Slimane didn’t come out SAINT LAURENT — mean and nasty.’’ He had looking terribly grown-up. convinced himself that he could ‘‘I would have picked up never marry a woman who wasn’t the phone and told Hedi he French, but at their 2009 wedding, can’t treat the press like that,’’ he toasted Hayek for opening up said Mimma Viglezio, formerly his Gallic mind. If she tends to head of communications at stick things out now, she says, it’s Gucci Group. ‘‘François can be largely because of him. ‘‘When I scared to tell designers what don’t like something, I leave. He to do.’’ François-Henri, of taught me not to do that. I may course, doesn’t see it that way. look tough, but he’s braver.’’ ‘‘Designers are fragile people,

One thing Pinault doesn’t do with his designers is kibitz. Once he’s determined who he wants holding the sketch pad, he keeps his mitts off the merchandise.

or PPR to reach the mileposts François-Henri has set, great feats will be demanded, particularly of Saint Laurent. It doesn’t matter that Hedi Slimane has spent the past years taking photographs and has never designed a women’s collection. Or that Alexander Wang has no experience at a major fashion label. The adjectives that describe the designers FrançoisHenri wants now are ‘‘young,’’ ‘‘modern,’’

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In the hands of Azzedine Alaïa, a dress is so much more than stitched fabric. It’s an exaltation of the female form. A technical masterpiece. A unique vision. Over lunch in Paris, fashion’s ultimate independent finally comes to terms with his singular legacy.

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PeRfection PhotographS by Karim Sadli STYLED BY Joe M c Kenna TEXT BY DANA THOMAS

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Ala誰a bra top, price on request. Skirt, QR 32,685; Jeffrey New York, Ala誰a shoes, price on request. February Issue 18, 17, 2013

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Katie Grand, the influential stylist and editor in chief of Love magazine, had Alaïa make her wedding dress, a brown snakeskin number with a fitted bodice and short flared skirt, in 2009. ‘‘He tortured me for a few months,’’ she recalls with a laugh. ‘‘The first question he asked was, ‘What size are you going to be at your wedding?’ ’’ When she told him, he explained that the dress wasn’t the sort that could be altered at the last minute. ‘‘He said, ‘I want you to lose weight by the end of next week. Don’t eat anything, and stay on a running machine.’ I said O.K. The dress fit on the wedding day, and I was happy in it.’’ Alaïa’s fierce independence was instilled by his grandmother, who, he remembers, ‘‘always said, ‘Children until 7 should remain free. No need to clutter their heads with religion and other things. They need to live freely as children.’ ’’ He’s carried on this philosophy throughout his life. ‘‘I am still free,’’ he insists. Much of that may soon change. After a brief and relatively hands-off foray with the Prada Group in the early 2000s, during which he expanded into accessories, Alaïa sold his company to Richemont, the Swiss-based group that owns Cartier, Montblanc and Chloé, in 2007. With big money behind him, growth plans are afoot: Sozzani is in Paris in part to help oversee the construction of a new four-story Alaïa outpost on rue Marignan, due to open this year. A perfume — one of luxury fashion’s favorite cash cows — is in the works, as is global retail expansion. With all of this, Alaïa remains his usual unassuming self: small ( just over five foot two), soft-spoken and feisty, dressed in his habitual black Mandarin jacket and trousers, with three dogs — Anouar, a Maltese given to him by Campbell; another Maltese named Waka Waka, from the singer Shakira; and Didine, a St. Bernard — never far from his feet. At roughly 72 years old — he has never admitted his age — he is fine with what appears to be Richemont’s positioning of the brand for a long-term life after he is gone. ‘‘All can continue without me,’’ he says. ‘‘It must continue. One day, you say, ‘That’s it’ for yourself. But not for the house. You simply have to find the right replacement.’’ Come September, the Paris fashion museum Musée Galliera is mounting an Alaïa retrospective for its reopening after a four-year renovation. Among the gems that will be on display: the immense French Tricolor gown that the designer made for the opera soprano Jessye Norman to wear as she sang at the French bicentennial concert in 1989 and the iconic spiral zipper dress that was inspired by a jacket Arletty wore in the French classic ‘‘Hôtel du Nord.’’ There is also an Alaïa Foundation in the works: a place where his personal design archives, as well as pieces from other designers he admires and collects, like Madame Grès, Madeleine Vionnet and Jacques Fath, will be on display. And in May, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will perform a new version of ‘‘The Marriage of Figaro,’’ the Mozart classic, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with Alaïa-designed costumes and a Jean Nouvel set. Though busy, Alaïa remains tireless. Of his 75 employees, many under 30, he announces proudly, ‘‘But they are older than I am!’’ One, who is passing through the kitchen at that moment, laughs in agreement. ‘‘I am very curious,’’ Alaïa says. ‘‘Every day, I say: What am I going to learn today and whom am I going to meet?’’ No doubt some of them will be at lunch.

Jacques GAVARD

ou never know who you might run into at Azzedine Alaïa’s headquarters in the Marais section of Paris. On a Friday in December, there’s the fashion photographer JeanBaptiste Mondino, shopping for a navy A-line minidress as a gift for his wife. Azzedine ‘‘has a real sense of the woman’s body,’’ Mondino says. ‘‘And women know that.’’ Alaïa walks into the ground-floor shop, as he often does, pleased to see his old friend. ‘‘Stay for lunch,’’ he insists. Mondino demurs, ‘‘I have to work.’’ Carla Sozzani, the founder of the 10 Corso Como gallery, boutique and hotel in Milan and Alaïa’s longtime friend and style consultant since 2000, is there too. So is the French photographer Sarah Moon, who recounts how she originally went to see Alaïa in 1977 at his first studio, on the rue de Bellechasse, because she’d heard he made Marlene Dietrich’s suits. ‘‘No, my dear, it was Garbo,’’ he corrects her. ‘‘I dressed Garbo.’’ After much chatter and joke telling, everyone but Mondino moves into Alaïa’s large open kitchen for lunch. In fact, there are 22 around the immense old glass-topped garden table, including the painter Christophe von Weyhe, Alaïa’s retail manager and life partner of more than 30 years; several company assistants; and some friends of friends. ‘‘It’s always like this, lunch and dinner,’’ Alaïa says, as plates of roast chicken, puréed carrots and mashed potatoes are served. Alaïa is fashion’s enigma. The Tunisian-born designer has officially been in business for nearly 35 years, and he’s been privately making clothes to order for chic women since the 1960s, yet he still has what would qualify as a cult following. His company remains small — about $63 million a year in an industry where many brands earn hundreds of millions in sales annually. Unlike most designers today, who carry the title of creative director and serve more as managers than couturiers, Alaïa cuts his own clothing patterns and sews the samples himself, each stitch exactly where and how it should be. Most important, through the wizardry of perfectly placed seams and stretch knits, Alaïa’s clothes nip, tuck and hoist to maximum effect. The top model Naomi Campbell, who has known Alaïa since she was 16 and calls him ‘‘papa,’’ describes his designs as ‘‘almost magical. No other dress can make a woman look and feel as good as an Alaïa dress because it cinches a woman’s body perfectly.’’ Alaïa has always made the clothes he wants to make, at his rhythm, showing them when it pleases him, selling only to stores he likes and delivering them when he wants. Years ago, when he decided he’d had enough of the Paris show schedule, he simply opted to present his collection months after everyone else, and then soon after, stopped showing altogether. Alaïa simply plays by rules of his own making, rather than ones created by the fashion industry. And yet retailers can’t help but love him. His clothes appeal to a broad range of women, from ‘‘true collectors’’ to young customers ‘‘investing in pieces that will stay in their wardrobe forever but somehow always seems modern,’’ says Daniella Vitale, C.O.O. and executive vice president of Barneys New York, which has carried Alaïa since the early 1980s. Alaïa ‘‘has an uncanny ability to bridge all of it seamlessly. Very few designers have that capability.’’ His collection, she adds, ‘‘is one of the most successful brands we have in the store.’’

Model: Suvi Koponen/Next. Hair by Yannick dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Is at Management Artists. Makeup by Christelle Cocquet at Calliste. Set design by Max Bellhouse at the Magnet Agency. Fashion assistant: Nicolas Kuttler.

Nails by Trish Lomax at Premier hair and makeup.

AlaĂŻa top, price on request. Skirt, QR 13,900; saks.com. Shoes, QR 5,305;

Rite of The spRinG

There’s a dramatic formality to the season’s symphony of black and white fashion. Photographs by Solve Sundsbo Styled by Katie Grand

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modern corsetry Alexander McQueen dress, price on request; (212) 645-1797. Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière tiara, QR 1,230.

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fluid layering Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci dress, $4,690, and trousers, $1,055; bergdorfgoodman .com. Miu Miu headband, $550; similar styles at miumiu.com. Manolo Blahnik shoes (worn throughout), $685; (212)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;582-3007.

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sheer volume Gucci dress, QR 10,465; gucci.com. Balenciaga by Nicolas GhesquiĂ¨re tiara, QR 1,230. Opposite: Christopher Kane dress, QR 12,190; net-a-porter.com. Balenciaga by Nicolas GhesquiĂ¨re tiara, QR 1,230. 115

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wild romance Giles dress, price on request; e-mail studio@giles-deacon .com. Balenciaga by Nicolas GhesquiĂ¨re tiara, $335. Model: Stella Tennant/ DNA Models. Makeup by Lisa Eldridge at premier hairandmakeup.com. Hair by Syd Hayes at premierhair andmakeup.com. Production by Sally Dawson. Styling assistants: Anatolli Smith and Bradley Palmer.

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What She Wore in november 2010 the fine art photographer Catherine Opie gained entree into Elizabeth Taylor’s closet through their shared accountant, of all people. Opie, known for her documentary style, spent six months shooting the star’s myriad possessions at her Bel Air home — from her countless furs and many negligees to the famous La Peregrina pearl necklace, a gift from Richard Burton. Opie’s all-access pass was honored even after Taylor died in the middle of the art project. ‘‘I was there the day Christie’s staff came in with shopping bags to take it all away,’’ the photographer recalls. And while the sale earned Taylor’s estate a whopping QR 673.9 million, Opie’s exclusive window into the actress’s world — the images will eventually be published as a book — is priceless. maura egan

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Courtesy of mitchell-innes & nash and Regen projects

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